Development of 40 houses on land north of Jefferson’s Piec

Mon 28 Nov 2016, 12:20 (last edited on Mon 28 Nov 2016, 12:36)

The question of education is addressed in the WODC documents, but in an utterly inadequate way. Of the Jefferson Piece development it is stated: The site is approximately 800m from the central area, and around 650m to Charlbury Primary School. As a result, the site is considered to have excellent access to existing education facilities and will therefore have positive effects against this SA Objective. In line with Policy OS5 (Supporting Infrastructure), it is assumed that where necessary and viable, development will deliver or contribute towards the provision of appropriate supporting infrastructure which includes education facilities.

For the District as a whole the requirements for future requirements
for education and training facilities are set out in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan 157. Therefore, it is anticipated that the development could improve and/ or contribute to new educational facilities.

You'll find all this on p. 87 of 98 pp. in www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/1504775/SA-Addendum-Appendices-I-VI.pdf

Given that the primary school cannot handle all existing families, this is a really misleading claim & I hope a lot of people will point this out!

In addition, there is the question of access to the proposed housing area. WODC states that access to Jefferson's Piece site is currently problematic, and indicates that it could only be improved via the demolition of a set of single storey garages (see p. 228 on http://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/1504815/Schedule-of-Proposed-Main-Modifications-October-2016.pdf).

I am not sure what this means, but I am assuming that the suggestion is that access would be provided via the general housing area round The Green. If so, it will increase through traffic moving through that estate, and also along the bottom part of Ditchley Road -- a road that is already much used by children walking to school, and which will shortly become even busier as the new housing estates along Ditchley Road are completed and occupied. Is that how others also understand things?

I recognise that WODC has to supply more housing & that Charlbury is being relatively protected in terms of its plans, but I would hope that decisions were made on the basis of accurate information.