The chairman advised that a
number of members of the public had registered to address Council
on agenda item 7 – Local Plan publication version (2034).
Council agreed to extend the public speaking time to allow each
member of the public who had registered to speak three minutes to
make their address.
Council received addresses from
eighteen members of the public.
- Bev Hindle, on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council,
spoke in support of the Local Plan proposals.
- Mr Harris, on behalf
of Horspath Parish Council, urged
Council to remove the housing allocation at Northfields from the
Local Plan. No exceptional reasons existed to remove the land from
the Green Belt. Future housing would lead to urban sprawl with an
increase in noise and light pollution.
- Professor Richard
Harding, on behalf of the Campaign to Protect Rural England,
believed none of the strategic housing sites were required in the
Local Plan as the current plan provided adequate housing numbers.
The proposed housing numbers would lead to a huge influx of people
damaging the countryside and services. He expressed doubt that the
proposed housing numbers would be achieved which could impact on
the ability of the district council to control planning in the
future.
- Gill Bindoff urged
Council to change the Local Plan’s emphasis to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and require carbon neutral buildings and
schemes to provide low carbon renewable energy.
- Robin Bennett, on
behalf of The Green Party, expressed concern that the Local Plan is
not sustainable and, if passed, would have a detrimental impact on
the Green Belt, farming land and the countryside. He doubted that
it would be possible to achieve the housing targets set out in the
plan which was produced to meet the requirements of the Growth
Deal. He urged Council to agree a new plan with a reduced number of
houses to protect the environment.
- Leigh Rawlins, of
Sonning Common Parish Council, expressed the view that the number
of houses proposed was too great, that the proposed density was too
high and would lead to increased land values, that the plan offered
no protection to the edge of existing settlements and the number of
proposed houses was not deliverable.
- Ann Pritchard, on
behalf of Chalgrove Parish Council,
welcomed the lower priority given to Chalgrove Airfield but urged Council to remove it
from the list of housing allocation sites in the Local
Plan.
- Paul Boone spoke on
behalf of the Chalgrove Airfield Action
Group. He stated that Martin Baker was
not prepared to relinquish its lease on the site, that other more
deliverable sites existed, that Homes England had not costed the
cost of the compulsory purchase order route and has misrepresented
the deliverability of the site.
- Caroline Baird, a
Culham resident, asked Council to
remove Culham from the list of housing
allocation sites in the Local Plan. The proposals will impact on
the existing insufficient infrastructure, destroy the Green Belt
and rural life.
- Steven Sensecall spoke on behalf of the United Kingdom
Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Commercial Estates Group
(CEG) to support the Local Plan proposals, including those to
allocate land for housing at Culham.
- Samantha
Casey-Rerhaye spoke on behalf of
Culham Parish Council and expressed the
view that any new homes in Culham will
add to the existing infrastructure problems. The planned
infrastructure may solve the current problems but not those
generated by additional housing. The projected employment growth at
UKAEA was over optimistic as was the any hope for increased
capacity for the railway line serving Culham Station.
- Tim Bearder, County Councillor for the Wheatley
Division, urged Council to consider the negative impact of the
proposals in the plan on the Green Belt.
- Robert Gardner spoke
on behalf of Oxford Brookes University to support the Local Plan
proposals, in particular allocating land for housing at the
university’s Wheatley Campus.
- Robert Barter,
Chairman of Holton Parish Council, spoke on behalf of Holton Parish
Council in support of the housing allocation site at Oxford Brookes
University’s Wheatley Campus but expressing concern at the
site’s removal from the Green Belt. He believed that the new homes should be on the
eastern part of the site.
- Ginette Camps-Walsh,
on behalf of Beckley and Stowood Parish
Council, spoke against the Local Plan, the planned urban sprawl of
Oxford, and the proposed inclusion of land in Elsfield parish as a housing allocation
site.
- David Polgreen, on behalf of Stanton St John Parish
Council, spoke against the detrimental impact of the proposals on
the countryside, landscape, wildlife sites and the Green Belt in
general due to urban sprawl. The lack of public transport provision
would increase traffic and the use of ‘rat
runs’.
- Ann Henman, a
resident of Beckley and Stowood Parish
Council, spoke in objection to land within the Green Belt being
allocated for housing rather than housing being provided in
Oxford.
- Chris Wright,
Chairman of Garsington Parish Council,
expressed concern at the perceived lack of public consultation, the
impact of the plan on the Green Belt, and the potential for the
merging of small villages with Oxford