OXFORD University stands to profit from the destruction of a nature park and “spectacular misuse” of more than £10 million in public funding, campaigners have revealed.

National funding for affordable homes infrastructure has been allocated to a river bridge that would link a new university campus and industrial site to the city centre.  

Furious locals challenging the plans at the High Court say they would wreck Grandpont Nature Park while only saving graduates an estimated 20 seconds on their cycling commutes as there are bridges nearby.

A city councillor supporting their campaign has now accused the Labour-run city council of lying throughout the planning process for the bridge, of which it is the developer.

Green Cllr Lois Muddiman told the Morning Star: “The nature park is being destroyed for the bridge and the pathworks.

“The wider, major point is that this is public money from Homes England which is meant to be spent for infrastructure for affordable homes which actually is being used to enable private housing for the university.”

The proposed bridge would provide a walking and cycling route connecting the Osney Mead industrial estate and the Oxpens area to the city centre.

It is being funded using £8.8m from the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal and £1.5m from the Housing and Infrastructure Fund, all of which come from the Homes England central government funding for affordable homes.

The Osney Mead site is a long-term development project for the university, while the Oxpens area is being developed by a company 50 per cent owned by the university’s Nuffield College and the city council.

Friends of Grandpont Nature Park (FGNP) earlier this month alleged at the High Court that Oxford City Council acted “unlawfully” when it awarded itself planning permission to build the bridge last year.

They argued the authority was wrong to say the bridge would be “stand-alone” development not linked to the Osney Mead development.

During the hearings, the campaign group received a response to a freedom of information request to Homes England after asking it for documentation behind its decision to grant funding to pathworks connecting Osney Mead to the proposed bridge.

Its response included emails from the city council concerning its applications for £6m in funding to improve flood defences to allow Osney Mead to have some 600 residential properties.

They stated that while its application primarily focuses on the flood alleviation scheme, ”the delivery of the walking and cycling works are equally critical to the delivery of housing at Osney Mead” and that the funding would allow the creation of “a link to provide a dry walking and cycling route in the event of flooding.

“This section would link to work already under way to provide improved walking and cycling links through Osney Mead funded by the Local Growth Fund and the Oxpens Osney Bridge funded by the Growth Deal.

“The HIF [Housing Infrastructure Fund] funding is targeted at the improvement of the towpath between Osney Mead and Grandpont Nature Reserve, where it will link with the Oxpens Osney Bridge.”

An outcome to the High Court judicial review is due within three months following the disclosure of the FOI, which also confirmed that the council has been working with the Environment Agency, county council and University of Oxford to be in a position to “claim the HIF funding for several years.”

Cllr Muddiman said this confirmed campaigners’ suspicions that the Environment Agency has indicated that it would only give planning permission for Osney Mead if there would be a bridge which would provide safe egress from a flooded area.

“We think that the original design to do that, which went directly from Osney Mead to the Oxpens site over the railway bridge, would have indeed provided safe egress in times of flood,” she said.

“We understand why the bridge is so crucial to the university although we are repeatedly told by the council, which is the developer, that it is a stand-alone bridge for the people of Oxford which we don’t think is true.

“It [the proposed cycle route] would actually go under the railway bridge in a very low lying path which already floods regularly.”

Due to new minimum height restrictions for cycle paths, she said the proposals are to lower the path under the railway bridge which “doesn’t make sense.”

Having the bridge go over the railway would “provide a safe exit and it would not destroy the nature park” but would be much more expensive and “means less development” in Osney Mead and Oxpens sites, she added.

“I’m guessing that by having the bridge [built on] land on Grandpont meadow instead of Oxpens site is potentially cheaper.”

The fact that the university recently put more than £1m towards the bridge project, “tells us just how important this bridge is for Osney Mead,” she added.

“It’s not solely for the people of Oxford. Of course if this bridge was built then residents will use it but the residents do not need it, they are already served by the existing bridges which are very close by.

“I think the council aren’t telling us the whole truth. I think the city council is supporting the university and that they are clearly working in partnership.

“Most people when made aware of it are very angry about it and feel that if the university wants to develop Osney Mead for its own use then the university should be paying for the bridge in its entirety.”

She included herself among them.

A spokesperson for FGNP said: “The only reason for this bridge is to connect the planned new Osney Mead Innovation Quarter to the Oxpens development and the city centre; in other words to augment a private commercial development of Oxford University.

“And yet it fails even to do that: to reach the new bridge from Osney Mead, users would first have to use a section of towpath under the railway bridge which frequently floods, a problem for which neither the council nor the university have any viable solution.

“This is a spectacular misuse of public land and public funds.”

Oxfordshire County Council has said the bridge was a long-established part of the Housing and Growth Deal, a programme which provides government funding for housing and infrastructure.

A spokesman for the city council said: “The proposed bridge at Oxpens will provide an attractive, safe, walking and cycling route between the homes and jobs planned for Oxpens and Osney Mead, It will be a convenient off-road route between the west and the centre of the city. The existing Gasworks rail bridge’s limitations make it unsuitable for cycling. Although the new bridge lands at Grandpont, the park will remain available for enjoyment of the community.