title="Baldons Parish Council in Oxfordshire">

Baldons Parish Council News Nov 2019

New villagers

Recently  following the sale of a number of houses we now have some new families living in the village. On behalf of the Parish Council: welcome!  We hope you enjoy living in our community.

 

SODC Local Plan

Many of you may have read or seen in the news the problems that are occurring in the development of SODC Local plan, and it might be helpful for you to be aware of what is happening.

 

Changes which occurred in the political make up of SODC in May has led councillors on the new council to wish to change the draft plan proposed by the previous council. There are concerns at, and a wish to review and change, the excessive amount of housing being required of it prior to its submission to a planning inspector for the necessary public enquiry.

 

The draft plan has included significant housing provision for what is termed Oxford city’s unmet housing need and has proposals for development in the Green Belt south of Oxford, off Grenoble Road and nearby, which  has implications for the Baldons and other villages e.g. Garsington which we have been consistently opposed to.

 

Councillors at the SODC council meeting on 10th October were proposing to vote on a motion to instruct officers to withdraw the plan to allow it to be revised for the following reasons:-

  • The overall supply of homes in the Local Plan period is considered excessive as it is over 5,000 homes greater than the need identified for South Oxfordshire, even allowing provision for Oxford City’s unmet housing need.
  • The Local Plan does not give sufficient weight to responding to the climate emergency that we face as recognised by the decision of Council of 11 April 2019.
  • Concerns about site selection issues including:
    • that the scale of Green Belt release is not justified
    • flawed site selection having regard to the sustainability and deliverability of strategic allocations

Just prior to the meeting SODC received a letter of instruction from the Government Minister for Communities Housing and Local Government using his powers under an Act to stop the council taking any action. Therefore the committee was unable to debate or vote on the item.

Our District Councillor Sam Casey-Rerhaye has written a briefing note for Parish Councilors and expressed her concern at the uncertain position SODC is left in and it is hoped she will be at our next Parish Council meeting on November 11th to update us. Meanwhile the threat to local democracy and the Green Belt remains.

 

Oxford to Cambridge Expressway

We have no new information on this as yet.

 

There was no Parish Council meeting in October and no new planning applications.

Date of Next meeting

Monday November 11th 7.30 pm Village Hall

At this meeting we will be discussing the priorities and budget for next year prior to making a recommendation on the precept. If you have views, come along.

All our meetings are open to the public and we have an open session on the agenda for anyone wishing raise a matter with us.