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Councillors to have their say on draft Local Plan consultation
16/08/2023
The project has been delayed since January when Council officers were given time to address feedback
After being delayed for a number of months the public consultation on proposals for a new Local Plan are finally set to take a step closer this evening.
In January Cherwell District Council’s Executive decided to defer a decision on allowing the exercise to begin so council staff had the time to address feedback they had received from the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
That Committee will meet today and study a revised version of the ideas that we will be consulted on.
When eventually adopted the new Local Plan will guide development decisions in the Cherwell District up to 2040. The draft consultation suggests that our area has a projected housing need of 1,293 new homes each year. 284 of these are to meet the needs of Oxford City Council, which can’t accommodate its own requirements.
It is suggested much of the annual requirement could be achieved from sites where planning permission has already been granted, or the site is currently identified for development.
In Banbury it is proposed that residential development is encouraged on appropriate existing sites and the town centre is supported by resisting further major out of centre retail developments.
The proposals also highlight the need to secure a permanent home for Banbury United Football Club and to deliver a new secondary school.
Potential sites for housing on greenfield land are identified north of Wykham Lane and at Withycombe Farm. Meanwhile, in the town centre a number of areas are identified for potential redevelopment, including at Bolton Road and “the bus station and the eastern end of Castle Quay shopping centre which has a number of vacant units”.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam