Agenda item

Oxfordshire Plan 2050

For scrutiny committee to review a summary and analysis of responses from Regulation 18 Part 2 Consultation and next steps.

 

Minutes:

Cabinet member for planning introduced the report written by the Project Lead for the Oxfordshire Plan Team. Five local councils are involved in the Plan, so this report was not from SODC officers. It was a summary of consultation responses. The report had three appendices as follows:

Appendix 1:  Regulation 18 (Part 2) Consultation Report 

Appendix 2:  Statement of Community Involvement

Appendix 3:  Risks associated with the next stages of the Oxfordshire Plan

 

Cabinet member addressed the public speaker’s comments. Cabinet member explained that she was committed to lower housing numbers as per government standard method. Transformation on housing numbers was still being discussed. Regarding independent analysis of numbers, it was felt by the Cabinet member that peer review may be more damaging that political negotiations – however officers could look at why peer review was not discussed.

 

In regard to density, Cabinet member felt that a countywide policy could be a good idea. Local plans would need to look at the detail.

In response to the mention of the green belt review (this was suggested only in consultation responses) – officers should look at what this would entail exactly. Cabinet member spoke of the positive impact officers and district councillors had on the plan, particularly from the environmental policy perspective.

 

Scrutiny committee was asked to consider the following recommendations from the report of the Oxfordshire Plan Team Project Lead officer:

 

1. note the summary results from the recent regulation 18 (part 2) consultation

2. note the revised scope of the Oxfordshire Plan, with clarification over its relationship to city and district Local Plans and supporting evidence base

3. note the next steps of the Oxfordshire Plan process; and

4. recommend the adoption of the revised Statement of Community Involvement, subject to approval at the cabinets of the five Oxfordshire councils.

 

Councillors commented the following:

·       Discussion on high density housing – the pros and cons – it was suggested that high density may cause a lower quality of life. Cabinet member suggested a county wide policy would be helpful, but that local plan teams should look into this in detail. Another view was that high density housing would be more affordable and could be attractive and energy passive, and possibly supportive to community diversity and inclusion.

·       The impact of employment / commercial development being given more weight in Oxford City, then the housing burden falls onto surrounding villages.

·       Suggested creating a plan for dealing with stresses on community infrastructure and environmental quality of large housing developments. Officer responded that stakeholders do provide comments (environment agency as an example), and these will be looked at in the working group.

·       Concern over the categorising of responses – industry led responses aren’t clear – the pecuniary interest should be stated, and it was not clear in the report.

·       What would a green belt review entail and would scrutiny committee support it?

 

Committee debated in order to decide what recommendations they wished to put forward.

 

Debate focussed on concerns over whether there should be a greenbelt review to ascertain the future requirements of the district, and also the gaps in the report and concerns over the vested interest that some consultees would have.

 

Concern was raised about the suggestion of a green belt review, as the detail of what this would entail was not clear and could be detrimental to the green belt. The decision to have a review would need to be proposed to all five members (of the Plan) to decide. Was a review to strengthen or weaken the green belt? A view was expressed that there was uncertainty. Committee debated having a review in order to strengthen the green belt.

 

Committee was concerned about the potential vested interest of some consultees, resulting in incorrect conclusions being made, and the weighting this may have on future plans, and therefore a motion was moved and supported by the committee, and forms an additional recommendation which is stated below, point 5.

 

The committee resolved to note the following:

Resolved:
1. To note the summary results from the recent regulation 18 (part 2) consultation;
2. To note the revised scope of the Oxfordshire Plan, with clarification over its relationship to city and district Local Plans and supporting evidence base;
3. To note the next steps of the Oxfordshire Plan process; and

 

Resolved:
4. To recommend the adoption of the revised Statement of Community Involvement, subject to approval at the cabinets of the five Oxfordshire councils.

 

Committee added on a further recommendation to the Cabinet member for Planning.

 

Recommendation:

5. Scrutiny committee request that the Cabinet member for planning obtains greater clarity about the nature of the consultation responses to uncover any potential conflicts of interest. It was requested that the Cabinet member respond to the scrutiny committee’s concerns in writing.

 

 

A committee member asked that the notes of the public speakers be circulated to committee, due to the helpfulness of the points made.

Supporting documents:

 

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