...But Not At Magdalen?
What the protesters say...and Magdalen's Defence
Edward Pope, campaign co-ordinator for the past six years, put forward the case for the protesters. While admitting that there was no legal foundation for their protest, he claimed that there were "strong moral grounds".
"During the 60s and 70s, people used to walk between the University Parks and the Angel and Greyhound meadow along the River Cherwell. Then in 1981, Magdalen decided to widen the ditch around the college, creating what is now a ten foot moat."
Pope criticised what he described as the college's "fortress mentality", stating that it was interested in its own privacy at everybody else's expense. He said that a footpath would benefit a not only residents in East Oxford but a great deal of students, particularly those at St Catz. The University, he asserted, "has an obligation to consider people's needs in the city".
He claimed that the protesters were not asking for access to the main college grounds, simply for access to a small part of the riverside walk.
Although he admitted that the most likely solution would be a pathway around the back of the meadow, he and the other protesters "wouldn't like that nearly so much."
As for how likely they were to succeed, Pope was not too hopeful, stating sardonically that it would only work if the campaign carried on for the next 500 because that is the timescale which "colleges are able to catch up with reality."
Dave, from "The Land Is Ours" was more optimistic about change, "By occupying this land and by building a bridge over the Cherwell every year, we encourage people to feel they have a right to access this land. Change will take place gradually but as the social pressure builds up, is likely to succeed".
"This is a natural path people should enjoy up the Cherwell", he explained. "It is astonishing how much of central Oxford is blocked off from ordinary people. Its about time we took control and said enough is enough."
"We're not simply going cap in hand to landowners asking permission to go across their land, we feel its a question of taking back land that is originally ours, and that was stolen from us"
He continued in his attack on the university as a whole, "Colleges are incredably prolific landowners and on top of that they get tax exemptions, so its time to claw back a little of that. We would like ordinary people in East Oxford to think about taking some of this land back."
With the campaigner's fervent enthusiam and little sign of realaxation in university attitudes, the protests look set to continue.
Magdalen's Home Bursar, Tony Woodford, was quick to rebut the protesters' demands, "The trouble is that when people were allowed to come through, they would come in on motorbikes, they had dogs that were loose that were terrorising the deer, and so the college reasserted its right of private land".
"The college reinstated the ditch between Angel and Greyhound meadow and Bat Willow. That now forms a barrier which did not please the people who, quite understandably wanted to walk alongside the river. But it is through our land and there is no simple way we can provide that footpath."
"We have a duty to protect Addisons Walk as a place of tranquillity. Having motorbikes roaring round is just utterly unacceptable. You would need a tunnel or a considerable fence to constrain people. Or a bridge over the top."
Two years ago the protest led to a protester insisting on being heard in court and so I and the then Senior Bursar had to appear before a judge in the Oxford Crown Court. It was demonstrated to the judges that the
land is private and that the protesters were in fact trespassing. Costs were awarded to that particular protester.
The Bursar defended the college's stand, reminding the protesters that college is open most of the year, and is free to students and Oxford residents.
"We maintain our grounds at considerable expense. We do allow people into them. There are quite simple ways to cut into town from East Oxford, down the Marsden Road without having to cut through."
Although the Bursar was adamant that there would be "no relaxation of rules", he conceded that there was a possibility of a path being opened behind the meadow once the School of Islamic Studies has been built.
12th Oct 2000