Agenda item

Cabinet, at its meeting on 18 December 2018, will consider a report on the South Oxfordshire Local Plan. 

 

The report of the head of planning and appendix two (the log of changes to the Local Plan document since publication of the Scrutiny Committee version of the plan), which Cabinet will consider on 18 December 2018, are attached. The main Local Plan document and the other appendices are available on the council’s website.

 

The Scrutiny Committee will meet on Thursday 13 December 2018 and make any recommendations to Cabinet for consideration at its meeting on 18 December 2018.

 

Cabinet’s recommendations will be circulated to all councillors on 19 December 2018.

 

 

During the course of debate on this item, Council agreed, prior to the expiry of two and a half hours, in accordance with council procedure rule 82, to suspend council procedure rule 12, which restricts the duration of a meeting to three hours, to allow Council to complete the business.

 

Councillor Felix Bloomfield, Cabinet member for planning, moved and Councillor Jane Murphy, Leader of the council, seconded Cabinet’s recommendations as set out below:

 

1.    to approve the publication version of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan and associated documents, for publication under Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 as the version of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan proposed to be submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination, subject to:

a.             the updates provided by officers to the report to Cabinet on 18 December 2018, as appended to the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 December 2018;

b.             the changes to the Local Plan text on land at Chalgrove Airfield, as appended to the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 December 2018; and

 

2.    to delegate authority to the head of planning, in consultation with the Cabinet member for planning, to make any necessary minor amendments and corrections to the Local Plan and its associated documents including the identification of any saved plan policies as considered appropriate prior to:

a.     publication of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan; and

b.     submission of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan to the Secretary of State for independent examination and leading up to and during the examination.

 

In moving Cabinet’s recommendations Councillor Bloomfield, Cabinet member for planning, reported that, since the Council’s decision on 15 May 2018, there had been a thorough assessment of all possible housing site allocations.  By undertaking this assessment, it became very clear that such large sites each have their own delivery obstacles. In response to concerns about the delivery of enough housing to be able to demonstrate a five year supply of deliverable sites, the draft plan now includes new strategic allocations around the edge of Oxford. Although these are sites that are within the Green Belt, this approach to allocations provides a more robust plan.  He stated that the updated plan accords with the changes set out in the revised National Planning Policy Framework and provided a strengthened approach to the duty to co-operate with neighbouring councils.  The plan is not just about housing but also employment, retail, the environment and supporting infrastructure and, in his view, was more likely to be compliant with the duty to cooperate than the previous publication version of the plan.

 

He referred to the Scrutiny Committee recommendations agreed at its meeting on 13 December for Cabinet consideration.  He emphasised that if significant amendments to the plan as proposed would delay the consultation scheduled for to commence on 7 January and impact upon the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal and the milestones contained therein if the submission of the local plan was delayed beyond the growth deal deadline of 31 March 2019. 

 

He referred to further legal advice circulated to all councillors which is subject to legal privilege and would require Council to go into confidential session if councillors wished to discuss the contents of the advice, or previous legal advice.

 

Councillor David Turner moved and Councillor Mocky Khan seconded an amendment in the following terms to the proposed Local Plan text on Chalgrove Airfield to clarify the position of Martin Baker and the negotiations:

 

After 4.60 add the words “Martin-Baker considers that, if homes are built, it will no longer for safety reasons, be able to do its required low altitude ejector seat testing from its Gloster Meteor aircraft and they advise this will cause them to have to leave the site”; and

 

After the second “development” in 4.61, add the words “However Martin-Baker have advised that they broke off negotiations with Homes England in 2017 and have no intention of resuming negotiations.”

 

On being put the amendment was declared lost.

 

Councillor David Turner moved and Councillor Sue Cooper seconded an amendment to remove the Chalgrove Airfield site from the Local Plan because it was not deliverable and the number of houses required could be met from other sites.

 

On being put the amendment was declared lost.

 

Councillor Sue Cooper proposed and Councillor David Turner seconded an amendment in the following terms:

 

To request the Cabinet to:

 

(1)  reconsider, following the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) issued in July, that our plan should be assessed against it and that our housing need should be assessed in accordance with the Standard Method provided by the NPPF. This will give figures of 

556 x 23 = 12788 for the 2016 method or

627 x 23 = 14421 for the 2014 method

which are both below the 15726 figure for dwellings already completed or for which planning permission is agreed and therefore that all references to providing extra strategic sites can be deleted from the proposed South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2011 – 2034;

(2) commission an updated SHMA immediately, preferably with the other Oxfordshire Councils as part of the JSSP or independently as Oxford City has done. This should provide up to date evidence for the five year supply of housing required;

(3) consider granting exceptions to the approach in (1) above if parishes in which the proposed sites lie still wish to purse the proposals.

On being put the amendment was declared lost.

Councillor John Walsh moved and Councillor Elizabeth Gillespie seconded an amendment in the following terms to remove the field to the east of Wheatley from the Green Belt and to adjust the proposed number of houses from 300 plus to about 300 in line with the Scrutiny Committee recommendation to Cabinet.

“That Council asks Cabinet to amend the plan as follows:

(page numbers are from the printed draft scrutiny version)

Page 49

Remove paragraph 2 and following bullet points - "The Local Plan proposes to inset...."

Page 50

In policy STRAT10 replace "at least 300" with "about 300".

Remove penultimate paragraph on page - "The Wheatley Campus site is to be...".

Page 228 (Appendix 4)

Replace map with the map that was on page 215 of the October 2017 Publication version of the plan. This shows the field to the east of Wheatley which needs to be removed from the green belt for the neighbourhood plan to succeed”.

On being put the amendment was declared lost.

 

Councillor Sue Cooper proposed and Councillor David Turner seconded an amendment in the following terms

 

“To request the Cabinet to note that as there is a new policy in the draft SOLP 2011 - 2034, STRAT12, which sets out higher proposed densities for new builds and that this in theory should mean smaller or fewer (or a combination of both) sites are needed, to take account of this Council’s belief that:

(i)            the strategic sites should be listed in the order they are ranked in the evaluations as described in the background papers only sufficient sites should go forward to top up the supply to the "needed" 22775 as quoted in the plan

(ii)          this will mean that Land North of Bayswater Brook (ref STRAT15), Land at Chalgrove Airfield (ref STRAT9) and Land at Northfield (ref STRAT14) can be omitted”.

On being put the amendment was declared lost.

 

Councillors debated the Cabinet recommendations.

 

The majority of councillors supported the plan on the grounds that it was in the best interests of South Oxfordshire.  It will deliver a significant amount of housing, including affordable housing, and will help ensure residents are not faced with speculative development.  It also delivers on the commitment South Oxfordshire District Council made in agreeing the Growth Deal with Government.   The plan balances the need for growth whilst maintaining and supporting a high quality of life for residents. The plan would facilitate much needed infrastructure funding.  

 

A number of councillors spoke in opposition to the plan. The proposed housing numbers were too high with no evidence to support the need for the numbers which should be re-assessed before strategic housing sites are allocated. The plan does not protect the Green Belt and no exceptional circumstances exist to justify the allocation of sites within it. The plan will generate urban sprawl and impact on the green spaces between Oxford and neighbouring settlements in South Oxfordshire. The current infrastructure, particularly the road network, could not accommodate the increase in traffic generate by more houses. The proposed density of housing was too high and would not build communities. A number of councillors questioned whether the sites were deliverable and whether speculative development could return in such circumstances.

 

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 67, which provides for a recorded vote if three members request one, the chairman called for a recorded vote on the Cabinet recommendations, which was declared carried with the voting as follows:

 

FOR	AGAINST	ABSTAIN
Councillors	Councillors	Councillors
Anna Badcock	Sue Cooper
Joan Bland	John Cotton
Felix Bloomfield	Elizabeth Gillespie
Kevin Bulmer	Tony Harbour
Nigel Champken-Woods	Elaine Hornsby
Steve Connel	Sue Lawson
Anthony Dearlove	Imran Lokhon
David Dodds	David Turner
Stefan Gawrysiak	John Walsh
Paul Harrison
Lorraine Hillier
Mocky Khan
Lynn Lloyd
Jeannette Matelot
Jane Murphy
Toby Newman
Caroline Newton
David Nimmo-Smith
Bill Service
Ian Snowdon
Alan Thompson
Ian White
22	9	0

 

 

RESOLVED to:

 

1.   approve the publication version of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan and associated documents, for publication under Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 as the version of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan proposed to be submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination, subject to:

a.       the updates provided by officers to the report to Cabinet on 18 December 2018, as appended to the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 December 2018;

b.       the changes to the Local Plan text on land at Chalgrove Airfield, as appended to the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 December 2018; and

 

2.    authorise the head of planning, in consultation with the Cabinet member for planning, to make any necessary minor amendments and corrections to the Local Plan and its associated documents including the identification of any saved plan policies as considered appropriate prior to:

 

a.        publication of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan; and

b.         submission of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan to the Secretary of State for independent examination and leading up to and during the examination