WODC Local Plan 2043: 2 strategic Charlbury Housing Sites

Mon 10 Nov, 17:29 (last edited on Mon 10 Nov, 22:11)

Long, long ago, on a planet far, far away – or so it increasingly feels - I was once a (government appointed) Planning Inspector.  And was ‘lead’ author of the Housing chapter of the Charlbury  Neighbourhood Plan, which we adopted in 2021 – though it was mostly written sometime before that and wasn’t allowed to be as prescriptive as we wanted it to be.

 Thanks first to Christine & Christopher for drawing attention to this.  Not exactly a great time to go to public consultation, just before Christmas , but there it is.  I haven’t yet looked at the new proposals but some preliminary points might be helpful.

 The allocation of sites in a Local Plan is not far off a grant of ‘outline’ planning permission – meaning it’s an acceptance in principle that a site is suitable for development but it doesn’t usually address, or at least not in detail, more site specific issues such as access (though that could be important), impact on neighbouring occupiers, layout etc.  Because we are in what used to be called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ie the Cotswolds) the impact of possible development on the landscape will be a much more important consideration than it might be eg on the outskirts of Witney!  But anything that might be ‘material’ to the question can and should be considered.

 When I attended the Examination into the current Local Plan, some wag posed the question:  When does an “unacceptable encroachment into open countryside” become a “logical extension of the built up area”?  Actually in our case a very pertinent question!  And one you might like to think about if you are looking to make representations on this to WODC.

 One thing I am pretty sure of is that the level and type of local housing need we identified in the NP will still exist, if not have increased (even allowing for the development-which-dare-not-speak-its-name – we had accounted for that at the time).  And the type of development is of major importance here – meaning housing that local people can afford, not the large 4 or 5 bedroom houses that WODC have imho been all too ready to grant permission for in recent years (which is not a criticism of those who buy them – why wouldn’t you want to live here?).  That may be more an argument for later but worth making the case on it now (the arguments in the NP and its supporting paper on this will be just as relevant now as then) – see https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/0pthvr5t/made-charlbury-neighbourhood-plan-2031-14-06-2021.pdf

 Of the 2 sites mentioned, that next to Jefferson’s Piece was considered last time round (see Christine’s post) but was dropped along with other sites in the AONB because WODC did not convince the Inspector of the need for them at that time.  The land to the south of Hydac was tentatively suggested for allocation in the NP but not pursued.  I’m not ready to express an opinion about either of them – but if I can tear myself away from Deli matters for long enough I still might!

 Also - maybe this forum is not the place for strident views to be expressed?  Might be useful to have a ‘direction’ on that?