Agenda item

Report of the Head of Planning (attached)

Purpose: to consider the draft housing distribution numbers for the larger villages prior to Cabinet’s consideration of these. The numbers will inform the preparation of neighbourhood plans.

The committee considered the report of the Head of Planning setting out the recommendation to Cabinet about the draft housing distribution numbers for the larger villages to inform the preparation of neighbourhood plans.

Mr A Winterbottom, a resident of Chinnor, submitted a written statement and addressed the committee about his concerns about the additional housing proposed for Chinnor. The village had seen a large number of houses built recently and he considered it did not have the facilities or employment to support further development. A detailed look at the capacity of the village to accommodate more houses was needed before agreeing the figures. Additional housing should be for young people already in the village and assisted housing for older residents to allow both groups to stay. Residents had asked the parish council to reconsider developing a neighbourhood plan.

Mr Roger Bell, a ward councillor for Wheatley, sent a statement to the committee. He wrote that at Wheatley, the proposed allocation is a third of its proportional allocation because the village is entirely surrounded by the Oxford Green Belt and this limits the amount of land available. The core strategy Inspector ruled out a localised Green Belt review for Wheatley against any logic in the rest of the Core Strategy’s aims and objects. There is now no more space within Wheatley for any more dwellings to be built except by sub-division. Over the years, unless changes can be made, lack of growth will slowly destroy Wheatley as a thriving, lively community as it will not be able to act as a centre of services and facilities as one of the identified network of key rural centres for the smaller villages. He found it very sad that the ‘holy grail’ of the Green Belt overrules common sense, logic and the real housing needs of this part of the district.

Mr Miles Thompson, Planning Policy Manager, and Rev’d Angie Paterson, Cabinet Member for Planning, introduced the report and answered questions as follows:

·          Accommodating additional housing was a challenge for all villages and remedying existing deficiencies in infrastructure could not be required of new developers.

·          While it was not now possible, following the Inspector’s decision, to review the green belt around Wheatley, it would be possible to pursue exception sites if demand came forward.

·          The consultation with parish councils and the public had produced the responses in Appendix B. While there were few responses, there was no reason to assume they were unrepresentative. Providing the percentage share may not be the best way to present this information.

·          The draft allocations were made in accordance with the core strategy, to generate a strong network of larger villages across the district as service centres for smaller settlements. These would give communities some certainty about the distribution of new houses the district council was expecting at this stage.

·          Communities developing a neighbourhood plan were running their own consultations to allocate sites. Our exhibitions had focussed on villages not developing a plan, to avoid confusing the issues. Exhibitions were held in Berinsfield, Sonning Common and Watlington as these had registered an intention to develop a neighbourhood plan but had not reached the first formal stage of being designated a neighbourhood planning area.

·          Allocations were based on the numbers of existing houses and those with planning permission in 2011.

·          Planning policy and development control considered the overall housing mix in terms of size and the balance between open-market and social rented houses. There is no control over who actually buys open-market housing. As the council is at the start of the process of deciding housing allocations, it would be premature to give assurances over securing specific allocations for local, young or elderly people.

·          Local authorities in Oxfordshire were conducting a county-wide strategic housing market assessment. The outcome may modify the housing allocations to individual communities.

·          Council would approve the final document for inspection in late 2014. Whether a neighbourhood plan was found sound would depend on the scale of the difference between the draft or final allocations and the plan, but in order to allow plans to proceed to inspections and to give some clarity to communities it was important to proceed with this draft distribution, despite the uncertainties.

Councillors commented:

·          It would be useful if planning policy could clarify the position to neighbourhood plan steering groups so they could give the current and any amended draft figures proper consideration during their plan’s development.

·          Education infrastructure, especially access to secondary schools, needed to be considered.

·          There has to be a district-wide approach to housing allocations and the best option was to have a proposal that communities could work with.

·          There were benefits to making neighbourhood plans as these strengthened villages’ positions if there was a major policy change, and gave some certainty in planning for development.

The committee agreed to recommend that Cabinet confirm its support for the proposed distribution for the larger villages as set out in the appendix to the officer’s report.