Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room 1, 135 Eastern Avenue, Milton Park, Milton, OX14 4SB

Contact: Steve Culliford  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

73.

Declaration of disclosable pecuniary interest

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting. 

Minutes:

None.

74.

Urgent business and chairman's announcements

To receive notification of any matters which the chairman determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman. 

Minutes:

None.

75.

Public participation

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak. 

Minutes:

The following members of the public had registered and spoke on the South Oxfordshire Local Plan.

 

1.         Christian Leigh of Leigh & Glennie Limited, on behalf of the residents of Rofford and Little Milton, adjoining Chalgrove Airfield.

2.         Ken Glendinning of Homes England.

3.         Caroline Baird, resident of Culham Parish.

4.         Professor Richard Harding on behalf of CPRE Oxfordshire.

5.         Ian Goldsmith, Chairman of Cuxham with Easington Parish.

6.         Toby Pejkovic,on behalf of Culham Parish Council.

7.         Paul Boone on behalf of the Chalgrove Airfield Action Group.

8.         Ian Hill, Chairman of Watlington Parish Council.

9.         Ann Pritchard, Chairman of Chalgrove Parish Council.

 

District Councillors

 

1.         Councillor David Turner, member for Chalgrove.

 

76.

South Oxfordshire Local Plan pdf icon PDF 166 KB

To consider the head of planning’s report. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman of Cabinet agreed to extend the public speaking time, allowing each public speaker three minutes. The key points of each speaker are summarised below.

 

Christian Leigh, on behalf of the residents of Rofford and Little Milton, adjoining Chalgrove Airfield.

·           The Chalgrove site is not deliverable due to the presence of the aviation ejector seat manufacturer, Martin-Baker, who require the entire airfield site for their testing activities which include pyrotechnics. The site is also used by the military for training flights and by the NHS for organ transportation.

·           Martin-Baker consider this to be the only suitable site for their ejector seat development.

·           An application for a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of this site by Homes England would be vigorously contested.

 

Ken Glendinning of Homes England.

·           Homes England own much of the Chalgrove site.

·           They are committed to the site and to the delivery of sustainable housing, including transport and highway improvements and 40 per cent affordable housing, and other fully funded infrastructure improvements including health centres and schools.

·           The development would also provide employment opportunities.

·           Associated infrastructure improvements would include the Stadhampton bypass, the Watlington edge road, improvements at Chislehampton and the Cuxham and Benson edge roads.

·           Homes England would continue to work with Martin-Baker on the site to come to terms of agreement.

·           The CPO is the power of last resort.

 

Caroline Baird of Culham Parish

·           The green belt is in place to protect the openness and distinctiveness between urban areas.

·           The Culham site is unsuitable, as it is on a green belt site.

·           The Local Plan was likely, as it stood, to be found unsustainable by a planning inspector.

 

Professor Richard Harding on behalf of CPRE

·           The current Plan is undeliverable. The population growth rate is not sufficient to justify the original Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) figures, which are flawed.

·           There is a fourth option: to rework the plan in line with new government housing policy which would reduce South Oxfordshire’s housing need figures and Oxford City’s unmet housing need figures which would make the Chalgrove and Culham Sites unnecessary.

·           There could also be a reduction of housing density.

 

Ian Goldsmith on behalf of Cuxham with Easington parish.

·           Would like the Cabinet to choose Option 2 as the impact on Cuxham of development at Chalgrove would be negative.

·           The Chalgrove site is technically undeliverable and a CPO would likely fail which would mean that the entire Local Plan was undeliverable.

·           The transition period into building the site would negatively impact on Cuxham because of the traffic disruption.

·           Suggest waiting for the new SHMA figures.

 

Toby Pejkovic on behalf of Culham Parish Council

·           Culham is in protected green belt land

·           The new Objectively Assessed Housing Need figures (OAN) will reduce South Oxfordshire and Oxford City’s requirement for building houses.

·           Would prefer the Cabinet not to make a decision until after the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and new OAN have been published by the government.

 

Paul Boone on behalf of the Chalgrove Airfield Action Group

·           The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

 

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