New Local Plan draft will be seen in January

08/12/2022

The old Local Plan

The highly anticipated document will be studied by local groups who are fighting the expansion of Banbury

Our first chance to see which local sites are being proposed for development will come in January with the publication of the new draft Cherwell Local Plan.

After a number of delays the Council has announced an Extraordinary meeting of its Executive Committee will be held on January 19, specifically to discuss the Local Plan.   The agenda for that meeting is set to be made available in the days ahead of the meeting.

Local plans are prepared to create a vision for the future of an area.   They address issues such as housing needs and other economic, social and environmental priorities. 

The project to create a new Local Plan was announced in July 2020 with a consultation on ideas for inclusion in that plan undertaken last autumn.

Initially it was anticipated that we would get to see the proposed new Local Plan in October.      Delays – including the abandonment of the agreement between Oxfordshire’s Councils for creating an Oxfordshire Plan – saw that pushed back with the lead member for Planning, Councillor Colin Clarke, telling Councillors he anticipated the document would be considered by the Council’s Executive in December.

Earlier this week a Council spokesperson confirmed to Banbury FM the Council now intended to bring the document to a meeting of the Executive in January.  

The new Local Plan is highly anticipated by campaign groups who are fighting the expansion of Banbury which could swallow up villages like Hanwell, Bodicote and Nethercote.   They will be keen to see the amount of new development, both housing and business, that is being proposed – and where it might go.

A recent rebellion by Conservative MPs saw the government back down on its proposals over the house building targets that are currently enforced upon local councils.   A revised policy would now give councils more leeway to depart from the set figures.

A number of recent planning applications in the Cherwell District have been approved because the Council is not currently able to demonstrate it can achieve the prescribed government housing building target.


Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam

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