Planning councillor says cards have been deliberately stacked against them

Committee agrees to another 150 homes because the risks of not doing so were too great

A local councillor has questioned the point of Cherwell’s planning committee, in the face of government rules which have left them no option but to wave through planning applications against the wishes of the local community.

Speaking at the committee’s most recent meeting an exasperated Councillor Phil Chapman told his colleagues the rules had been stacked against them. He felt all they as a committee were able to do was amend the conditions attached to planning applications when passed.

Councillor Chapman’s comments came as the planning committee agreed to another outline application from Manor Oak Homes for 150 homes to the north of Dukes Meadow Drive in Banbury.

Officers explained to committee members that, despite the site not being in the Local Plan, it needed to be approved because the council wasn’t achieving government led house building targets. Should the committee reject the proposal the applicant would be likely to win an appeal with the council picking up the costs.

Worst still if the committee’s decision making was found to be at fault too many times planning decisions could be taken away from them entirely. It was this that worried Councillor Chapman.

He said: “I don’t think this is about the money – about losing an appeal – because I’m pretty confident, sadly, that we will lose an appeal. However much we may not like this application – the money of course matters – but I think it’s we will lose any influence at all as we look forward.

“If I say what I really think (which I normally do, so I will now) I think we’ve already lost it, because we’re in such a corner, by the way the regulations are interpreted now by the judges or inspectors (whatever they’re called).

“I sometimes wonder what our purpose is here – and I say that very sadly and regretfully – but if I do boil it down I think the power we do have, which is quite minor but matters, is conditioning. If we lost even that we’d be in an even worse mess, even worse than the money side of things, which isn’t good anyway.

“So I will support this and have a gin tonight because I’ll be so cross with myself for doing so. I feel we’ve already been forced into that position which I think is awful. All the cards have been very deliberately and carefully stacked against planning committees across the country.”

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Published: 07/10/2025 06:00am by the Banbury FM News Team

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