Category: West Oxfordshire District Council
Manor Oak Appeal
A reminder that tomorrow, 28th of March, is the last day to submit Manor Oak comments to the Inspector, details below:
To make comments to the Appeal on the Manor Oak site, these may be made:
• directly via the Planning Inspectorate website https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk under reference “3333133”
• or by email to ve.rt@planninginspectorate.gov.uk quoting the appeal reference APP/D3125/W/23/3333133.
Comments will not be accepted after the 28th of March.
West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041 Meeting
A big thank you to all the residents who attended the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041 (WOLP 2041) meeting yesterday evening and shared their concerns regarding the Common Road, Football Club and other Eynsham Park sites put forward. We will be incorporating all of your comments into the Parish Council’s response to WODC to be sent in April 2024.
If you were unable to attend any of the meetings we have held on WOLP 2041 or wish to submit further comments on any of the 11 sites put forward in North Leigh, please email them to parishclerk@northleighparishcouncil.gov.uk by end March 2024 for inclusion into the Parish Council’s response. Please note that WODC will not accept comments directly from residents at this stage. Residents will have an opportunity to comment on the shortlist of sites in Summer 2024.
Meeting of the Planning Committee
The Planning Committee of North Leigh Parish Council will be holding a meeting on Monday the 26th of February at 7pm.
So you want to be a parish/town councillor?
The next scheduled elections are on Thursday 2 May 2024, when there will be elections for North Leigh Parish Council.
Update on the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041
The District Council’s Executive will be holding a meeting to discuss the next phase for the Local Plan 2041 on the 14th February at 2pm.
Response to the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041
North Leigh Parish Council responded to the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041 (WOLP 2041) submitting a comment on 29th November 2023.
Revised housing targets mean Council regains greater control of planning process
| Due to a revision in the way the Council’s is able to calculate housing targets, West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) can now demonstrate a ‘five-year housing land supply’ which will mean it has greater control over the planning process. |
| WODC’s adopted Local Plan recently passed its fifth anniversary and because housing policies need updating, the Council is now able to calculate its housing land supply using the Government’s alternative ‘standard method’. Carl Rylett, Executive Member for Planning and Sustainable Development stated, “This is highly significant news. We remain committed to building the right number of houses in the right places, but the fact that we have not been able to demonstrate a full five-year supply of housing sites over the last 12 months has put us at risk from speculative development in unsuitable locations. “Revising our calculation reduces this risk and allows us to concentrate on making swift progress with our new Local Plan, setting a new housing target to 2041 and identifying a pipeline of suitable sites, supported by the right investment in infrastructure.” For West Oxfordshire, this is much lower than stated in the current Local Plan. The result is that the Council can now demonstrate a 5.4-year supply of deliverable housing sites, meaning it has a greater degree of control when determining speculative planning applications for housing. |
Your Place, Your Plan – make sure you have your say
Residents in West Oxfordshire are invited to share their views on plans for the development of the District up to 2041 as the Council launches its ‘Your Place, Your Plan’ consultation.
Manor Oak Homes – Update
The application by Manor Oak Homes to build up to 43 homes at a site south of the New Yatt Road in North Leigh was refused at the West Oxfordshire District Council Lowlands Area Planning Sub-Committee meeting on 11th September 2023.
The North Leigh Parish Council Planning Committee called a meeting for residents of North Leigh in April 2023 to discuss their views on this proposal which was very well attended with more than 30 members of the public attending. Residents expressed their concerns about yet more housing being built in the village (there has been a 42% increase in housing in the last 6 years), about building at this site leading to coalescence between North Leigh and New Yatt, about the extra traffic and parking congestion, the problems with sewers, sewage treatment surface water drainage and low water pressure that would be made worse, the dangerous exit from the site and lack of pathways on the New Yatt Road, the cracking, flooding and damp problems in the adjacent Breakspear Way development and a range of other issues.
North Leigh Parish Council then filed a comment listing these objections on the West Oxfordshire District Council planning portal together with the many individual comments of residents. The application was due to be considered at a Lowlands meeting in August 2023, but the Parish Council attended to request a deferral of the decision to allow Councillors the opportunity for a site visit.
The application was then brought for consideration at the 11th September Lowlands Planning Committee meeting where the Parish Council, together with local neighbours made a strong defence against the application, representing the views of the parish residents. In the subsequent debate Ward Councillor Harry St. John, who is a member of the Lowlands Committee, spoke against the planning officer’s recommendation for approval, on the grounds that it breached a number of Policy reasons which outweighed the housing land supply factor dominating the planning officer’s thinking. Harry St. John then seconded a motion to refuse the application- the motion to refuse had 7 in favour, 3 against and 3 abstentions and so was carried.
It remains to be seen whether Manor Oak, who is a land promoter and not a house builder, appeals against this refusal or promotes their site through the Local Plan review. We must remain vigilant.