Cherwell pays more in appeal costs than any other Oxfordshire council
17/02/2026
There’s a fear unpopular applications might be approved for fear of further costs
by Esme Kenney, Local Democracy Reporter
An Oxfordshire council was forced to pay more than £429,000 in costs due to planning appeals, sparking fears that planners could be under pressure to approve controversial applications and create a “feeding frenzy” for developers.
The Planning Inspector has the power to order councils to cover costs or damages to developers, if the developer successfully appeals against a planning decision.
Cherwell District Council has paid £429,670 to developers since 2021, a Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has shown.
This is by far the highest of any other council in Oxfordshire within the same time frame.
The threat of losing at appeal and having to pay damages has sparked concerns that council planning committees could be less willing to turn down planning applications, even if they are unpopular locally.
Green councillor Ian Middleton, who represents Kidlington East, said: “I am very concerned about how this has now largely eroded [the council’s] authority, not least because it’s raised as a prelude to every major application now.
“That, along with threats of planning appeals and government sanctions for not winning them, often coerces the committee into taking a far more permissive stance on some applications than I think they might otherwise would, particularly with regard to the protection of green spaces and local plan priorities.
“However, the almost unanimous decision to refuse one major application on the Green Belt in Kidlington does show there is still an appetite to take a principled stance.
“The government seems hell bent on undermining local democracy on planning matters through their new planning framework which includes proposals to completely remove elected members from the decision process on some applications.
“That, along with the continuation of the outdated five-year land supply requirement, arbitrary housing targets, and viability assessments that guarantee private developers a rude profit, regardless of local need for affordable housing, have created a speculative developers feeding frenzy that districts like Cherwell seem to be at the epicentre of.”
Out of the total sum, £401,769.74 was paid to Merton College, part of Oxford University, over the council’s failure to make a decision on its plans for 540 homes at Rutten Lane in Yarnton.
Mr Middleton added “Given that their main complaint seemed to be the delay in approving the application, it’s rather galling that over two years later they have yet to lay a single brick!”
Another £18,780.50 was paid over an application for 30 homes off Ells Lane in Bloxham, while £9,120 was paid to planning agents and architects over a change of use application to turn farm buildings at Crockwell House Farm in Great Bourton into a residential home.
Council documents revealed that the £100,000 budget for planning appeals in 2025/26 ran out last July.
When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Cherwell District Council said that they had not used any financial reserves, and that additional income was used instead.
Leader of the council David Hingley previously told the BBC: “The group of councillors who make these decisions on the major applications about whether to approve or to reject them, it’s wholly independent.
“There’s no kind of pressure from within political parties on the members of the committee to vote in a particular way and they will come to their own conclusions and then they will vote.”
The district has 10,000 homes with planning permission which have not been built yet, but they do not count towards the council’s five-year housing land supply.
Plans for 340 homes in Kidlington, and for warehouses off the M40 in Bicester, were refused by the council last month.
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
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