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You are here: home > News >  Press releases >  Archive >  2007 >  August 2007

Release date: Aug 31, 200

Green belt development is not the way forward...

South Oxfordshire District Council today expressed its severe disappointment at the prospect of a southern extension of Oxford into the Green Belt, as proposed by the Panel appointed to review the South East Plan.  However, the district council welcomed the panel’s backing of its vision for Didcot over the next 20 years.

In a long and detailed report, the Panel appointed by the Secretary of State to carry out independent testing of the draft regional spatial strategy for the South East (the South East Plan), recommends a southern extension to Oxford accommodating of at least 4,000 dwellings.  It argues that this development is necessary to enable Oxford to continue to function as a major academic and employment hub and to meet the housing needs of the city.  Both the district and county councils have consistently opposed such an extension since the idea was first put forward some years ago.  The councils have argued that expanding Oxford in this way will exacerbate, not alleviate problems such as traffic congestion.  Both councils are also very concerned that allowing development in the Green Belt in this way represents the start of a slippery slope and that, over time, will see Oxford expand further, destroying its unique heritage and swallowing the villages on its fringes.

The Panel’s recommendation is all the more surprising given that the allocation for new housing in Oxford City is about 3,000 less than the City Council itself has said that it can accommodate between now and 2026.

Regarding Didcot, the Council is happy to give the Panel’s recommendations its full support.  The Panel supports both the allocation of 3,000 new homes put forward in the draft plan and the additional 1,500 homes that resulted from Didcot being designated as a new growth point by the Government last year.  These 4,500 homes - notionally split 50:50 between South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse districts – should enable significant improvements in health, leisure, shopping and other facilities in the town.

Cllr John Cotton, Cabinet Member for Planning said:

“I am bitterly disappointed with the Panel’s recommendation regarding the expansion of Oxford southwards into the Green Belt.  My council has argued consistently for many years that this is not a sustainable way of addressing housing shortages in the county.  The panel has missed an opportunity to show some vision and fully back the more sensible option promoted by ourselves and the county council to enhance Didcot and the surrounding area to act as a counterpoint to Oxford.  We will be putting pressure on the Secretary of State, Hazel Blears, not to accept the panel’s recommendation, and to prove that the Government’s stated commitment to maintaining Green Belts is real and not empty rhetoric.

“In particular, I will want to draw her attention to the fact that the City Council has said that it can accommodate 3,000 more dwellings within Oxford than the Panel recommends.  If the Secretary of State makes this extra allocation then an expansion into the Green Belt becomes even more unnecessary. 

“On the positive side, I am satisfied with the Panel’s findings regarding expansion of Didcot where it has concurred with pretty much everything that this Council put forward.  In particular, I am pleased that it recognises the need to put new infrastructure in place to support the growth of the town.  This is something that we have said consistently for some time and I look forward now to the Government putting its money where its mouth is and providing funding for essential services as it promised it would when we accepted that the town should be a growth point.”