Councillor Carl Rylett Executive Member for Planning and Sustainable Development, said, “One of the most critical functions of the Council is looking forward and planning for the future. We do this through the Local Plan process, which sets out how the district should grow and develop over the next several years. The importance of this document cannot be overstated, as it has far-reaching effects on the future of residents and businesses in West Oxfordshire.
“We already know, from our initial consultation last year, that early consideration and prioritisation of infrastructure to support new development is very important to local people. Building the right homes in the right places and ensuring they are designed and built to the highest standards also reflects the aspirations of our residents.
“It’s vitally important that residents’ views are central to the development of this new plan. This is your district, make sure you have your say on its future.”
We undertook an initial consultation in the autumn of last year to seek early views on the sort of issues people would like the new Local Plan to address. The consultation resulted in 5,000 people visiting the consultation platform, and 441 people and organisations responding. There were also 1,143 contributions and comments made, and just under 3,000 people signed up for news updates.
During the next round of consultation, we are setting out a general ‘direction of travel’ for the new Local Plan and asking stakeholders for feedback on three key themes:
- Draft local plan objectives – a series of draft objectives intended to guide the future evolution of the plan in terms of its overall approach and policy content. This builds on the responses we had to the last consultation
- The future pattern of development in West Oxfordshire – different scenarios for how and where we might look to focus future growth in the period up to 2041
- Call for sites, ideas and opportunities – an open invitation for stakeholders to put forward their thoughts on how land in the district might be used in the future, such as new housing, employment, infrastructure, community use, green space, nature recovery and renewable energy.
The consultation will be hosted on the Council’s digital engagement platform CitizenLab, making it easier and quicker for residents to engage with us online. However, paper copies of the consultation document can be found in Council Offices and all local libraries.
We encourage residents to sign up to CitizenLab: https://yourvoice.westoxon.gov.uk/en-GB/folders/ideas-and-objectives-consultation to get the latest news and information about public engagement in West Oxfordshire.