Have your say on the impact of growth and related infrastructure priorities in Oxfordshire – consultation closes on 10 September.

The Oxfordshire Infrastructure Strategy (OxIS) is an independent report commissioned by Oxfordshire’s six councils who make up the Oxfordshire Growth Board.

The aim of the strategy is to set out the investment in transport, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure needed to support the predicted growth in population, jobs and homes up to 2040.

A technical Stage 1 report was published in April 2017 and work has been progressing on Stage 2 of the work.

Read more …→

Cherwell District Council Planning Committee last week turned down the current planning application for Gavray Meadows in Bicester (15/00837/OUT).

Their decision rested on the fact that the developer, Gallagher refused to put in place funding and a management plan for the Local Wild Life site as required by the Cherwell District Council regulations under the National Planning Policy Framework.

Obviously it will come forward again in some guise in due course – either as a new planning application with a proper environmental management plan for the whole site or, as seems likely, an appeal by the developer.

However, the Save Gavray Meadows team have fought an effective campaign and we are confident that the campaign group’s arguments will stand up to consideration by an Inspector.

Congratulations to all the campaign team!

Find out more: Save Gavray Meadows Facebook

See also: NNGO News

A planning application goes to Cherwell District Council this Thursday (18 May) for 180 houses on an arable field that lies within the River Ray Conservation Target Area (CTA) – next to a Local Wildlife Site (LWS), important for wildlife and one of the few remaining wildlife habitats in Bicester (not to mention green lungs in this fast growing ‘eco-town’ town).

The application (15/00837/OUT) on land to the north east side of Gavray Drive, Bicester (on the west of Langford Brook), is part of Cherwell’s Local Plan.

Land both west and east of the Langford Brook is part of the Local Plan ‘Bicester 13’ allocation for 300 houses.

The Save Gavray Meadows campaign group is opposing the development, since what happens on the west side of the Brook will impact on the Conservation Target Area and also the Local Wildlife Site.

The Local Wildlife Site contains lowland meadow important for a rich variety of species including: Song Thrush, Barn Swallow, Common Kestrel, Common Swift, Common Bullfinch, Common Whitethroat, Yellowhammer, European Water Vole, Greater Water-Parsnip, Eurasian Badger and Bullhead.

The application is recommended for approval, despite the Council receiving 60 objections from third parties.

Find out more about Save Gavray Meadows

See the Agenda for the CDC Planning Committee, 18 May

Need not Greed Oxfordshire has signed a joint response to the Housing White Paper from organisations and individuals committed to the provision of affordable housing in Oxfordshire.

NNGO is committed to working to overcome the challenges to the lack of affordable housing in Oxfordshire and we welcome the opportunity to comment with other like-minded organisations and individuals on the Government’s Housing White Paper and to share our views on how the proposals will impact on the provision of affordable housing in the county.

See the Joint Response: Affordable Hsg and HWP 2017 – Joint Response FINALdocx

In the run-up to the County Council elections this Thursday (4 May), members of the Need not Greed Oxfordshire coalition met with all the local Leaders of the main political parties.

NNGO believes Oxfordshire is facing a planning crisis, and so we wanted to know what the Leaders plan to do to fix this. We posed the same question to each of them: “How do you intend to fix the planning crisis?’

All the Party Political Leaders in Oxfordshire agree that the national planning system – the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – is broken and needs fixing.

Read more …→

In February, the government issued a white paper – ‘Fixing our broken housing market‘, setting out a broad range of plans to help reform the housing market and boost the supply of new homes.

The consultation ends today (2 May).

Need not Greed Oxfordshire has submitted a response to the consultation (see below).

Read more …→

On Friday 17 March, the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) launched its revised Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) for the county. Despite strong public demands for the overall growth targets in the Plan to be reconsidered, OxLEP has not compromised; the refreshed Plan contains the same housing and jobs targets outlined in the original SEP of 2014.

To mark the launch of the revised SEP, Need not Greed Oxfordshire issued a Press Release – ‘OxLEP ignores public to push ahread with growth targets’, read more…

Read more …→

Councillors have rebelled against their own council policy as they reject a controversial development in Sutton Courtenay.

On 1 March, Vale of White Horse District Council’s planning committee thwarted Redrow’s plan to build 200 homes in Sutton Courtenay, despite the site’s inclusion in the council’s Local Plan Part One.

Councillors argued the site’s location next to a waste facility posed ‘disgraceful’ contamination risks, siding with villagers and the Sutton Courtenay Action group, who have fought hard against the proposed homes off Hobbyhorse Lane.Read more …→

Oxfordshire County Council is proposing a ‘unitary’ council – just one council for the whole of Oxfordshire.

The ‘One Oxfordshire’ Unitary consultation closed today (1 March). The consultation provided the public with an opportunity to comment on the Council’s draft proposals.

While the NNGO coalition does not have a position on the overall structure of local authority organisation in the county and therefore does not endorse the single County Unitary proposal or those being offered by some District / City Councils, we welcomed the opportunity to respond to the One Oxfordshire Unitary Consultation.

Since one of the main planks of our campaign work is to ensure that all proposed county-wide growth plans are open to full public scrutiny and ongoing public engagement, we want to ensure that any new organisational structure will foster and enhance ongoing public engagement, increase transparency and deliver democratic accountability.

NNGO supports the One Oxfordshire determination to introduce a county-wide spatial approach, irrespective of whether this were achieved via a County based Unitary or the addition of a Combined Authority sitting above two or more Unitary Authorities.

NNGO would also like to see the One Oxfordshire document amended to make a clear commitment to full public scrutiny and ongoing public engagement in all forms of the planning process including Local Transport, Infrastructure, Minerals and Waste and, most importantly, the replacement Local Plan.

We believe mechanisms must be put in place to ensure there is full public scrutiny and ongoing public engagement in all Plan processes and furthermore that they must be subject to independent scrutiny via public examination led by a Planning Inspector. This is currently implied, but not clearly spelt out in the consultation document.

We believe any re-organisation of local authority structure for Oxfordshire should be seized as a valuable opportunity to enhance democratic accountability and we will be seeking to hold those responsible to account for delivering this outcome.

See: NNGO response to One Oxfordshire Unitary consultation – February 2017 – FINAL v1.

Find out more about the One Oxfordshire Unitary consultation.

At our recent Annual Review Meeting (7 February) coalition partners had the opportunity to reflect on the coalition’s successes over the past year, as well as challenges, and the way ahead.

Successes and challenges:

We had three campaign objectives when the coalition was formed in January 2016 – below is a brief assessment of how well they have been met:

• To raise public awareness of the disparity between “need” and “greed”.

We believe we have had a significant impact given the resources we had available. For example, 30 campaign groups have now signed up to the coalition; we have had good local media coverage; the NNGO website has had approx. 3,000 discrete users; over 240 people have signed up to the NNGO newsletter; and there were several hundred public responses to the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) consultation, with the vast majority referencing NNGO concerns.

However, there is still a long way to go in raising overall public consciousness of the issues.

• To force a reassessment by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Growth Board and constituent Local Authorities of the developer-led, aggressive growth strategy being imposed on the county.

Disappointingly, there has been no change to the overall targets. However, we believe there is much greater awareness of the level of concern felt by local people in relation to the growth strategy.

However, on a positive note, an expert panel set up by Government to look at Local Plans has recommended taking aggressive growth targets out of the calculation of housing numbers, and the recent Housing White Paper has recognised that the 5 Year Housing Supply Rules are a ‘blunt tool’ that have had ‘some negative effects on local planning’.

• To demand that Local Authorities and the LEP engage in sustained, transparent and meaningful stakeholder consultation and engagement, allowing the views of local people to influence future planning decisions.

NNGO forced a much-improved public consultation (incl. SEP being reviewed at some full Council meetings) and limited improvements in the final SEP document. However, the overall targets were not influenced.

In summary, we have achieved a great deal in terms of awareness-raising but without as yet forcing any significant change in policy. However, given the level of support that NNGO has attracted from local groups, we believe we have a mandate to continue seeking to get their voice heard. Read more …→