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Joint Local Plan consultations

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils have come together to work on a new Joint Local Plan to 2041. The Joint Local Plan will guide what kinds of new housing and jobs are needed and where they should go, informing planning application decisions for the districts. 

Current consultations

Playing Pitch Strategy and Leisure Facilities Assessment and Strategy

We are currently consulting on our Leisure Facilities Assessment and Strategy (LFAS) and Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS).  These set out our leisure and playing pitch needs to 2041 focusing on protecting, enhancing and providing pitches and facilities. The consultation is running from Wednesday 13 March to 23:59 on Wednesday 17 April 2024.

The PPS covers pitch sports including football, rugby, cricket and hockey. The LFAS covers leisure facilities including but not limited to sports halls, swimming pools, tennis courts and multi-use games areas.

The strategies will become a key part of the evidence base for our emerging Joint Local Plan, identifying what leisure facilities and playing pitches our large scale housing developments will need to deliver or make financial contributions toward. 

You can read the documents and their appendices in full below. Please provide us with your comments on our consultation website here.

Consultation documents

Supplementary documents

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse Leisure Facilities supplementary documents
South Oxfordshire Playing Pitch Strategy supplementary documents

Previous consultations

Preferred Options consultation

Between 10 January to 26 February 2024, we asked for community feedback on our preferred policy options and draft policies to address local challenges and unlock future opportunities across the two districts.

Using an innovative new engagement platform, respondents could share their thoughts through two surveys: the full Joint Local Plan Preferred Options Document; and the Joint Local Plan in a Nutshell, a quicker way to review the plan. You can still view the relevant surveys and documents on the consultation webpage, including the supporting documents such as the Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment, Habitats Regulations Assessment, topic papers and more.

We also prepared a Public Notice which provided details on this consultation and data protection.

To receive updates on the Joint Local Plan, including when we consult on the draft plan please register your details using our sign up form.

In person events

We held ten drop-in consultation events during January and February 2024. We also provided an interactive virtual exhibition as well as an accessible version of the exhibition (if you are on a mobile please use the link to the accessible version).

LocationDateTimeVenue
Sandford-on-ThamesSaturday 20 January 20241pm – 4pmSandford Village Hall, Henley Rd, OX4 4YN
ShipponWednesday 24 January 20243pm – 8pmShippon Village Hall, Barrow Rd, opposite Prince of Wales pub, OX13 6JQ
WallingfordThursday 25 January 20243pm – 8pmCentre 70, Wallingford Community Association Hall, off Kinecroft, Goldsmiths Ln, OX10 0DT
Henley-on-ThamesSaturday 27 January 202411am – 4pmHenley Town Hall, Market Pl, Henley RG9 2AG
ThameTuesday 30 January 202411am – 4pmCandelo Lounge, 102 High St, Thame, OX9 3DU
WantageWednesday 31 January 202411am – 4pmThe Beacon, Community Centre, Portway, Wantage OX12 9BX
AbingdonSaturday 3 February 202411am – 4pmPablo Lounge, Abbey Shopping Centre, 1-3 Bury Street, Abingdon, OX14 3QY 
CrowmarshMonday 5 February 202411am – 4pmCrowmarsh Pavilion, Recreation Ground, Bellamy Way, Crowmarsh Gifford, OX10 8FN
FaringdonTuesday 6 February 202411am – 1:30pm

1:30pm – 4pm		Faringdon Town Council, The Pump House, 5 Market Place, Faringdon SN7 7HL

The Old Crown Coaching Inn, 25 Market Place, Faringdon SN7 7HU
DidcotSaturday 10 February 202411am – 4pmBerro Lounge, Orchard Shopping Centre, 44 Orchard St, Didcot, OX11 7LG
What happens next

We are now reviewing all the comments we received and will summarise them in a consultation statement. Your views will help shape the draft of the Joint Local Plan for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse. In Autumn 2024, we expect to publish a full draft of our Joint Local Plan (the Proposed Submission Joint Local Plan) for a further stage of public comments. After this we will submit the draft plan and the comments for an independent planning inspector to examine the plan.

To receive updates regarding the Joint Local Plan, including when we consult on the draft plan please register your details using our sign up form.

Questions?

If you have any questions on the consultation, please contact the planning policy team on planning.policy@southandvale.gov.uk or call 01235 422600.

Issues Consultation

In May 2022, we carried out a public consultation asking for your thoughts on the main issues facing our districts and how we could use the Joint Local Plan to address them. To do this, we launched an innovative new interactive website for our consultation, with interactive maps, a video and images. It was designed to work on a tablet, computer or mobile phone, although for those who prefer a more traditional document, there was also a PDF version of the Joint Local Plan Issues consultation.

We also consulted on other documents alongside the Joint Local Plan Issues consultation – these were:

We also prepared:

What you told us

Our Joint Local Plan Issues consultation was open from 12 May until 23 June 2022. After this, we analysed the responses and shared what you told us.

To show the results, we made some updates to our interactive Issues Consultation website. As you explore this interactive website you will see snapshots of the results and links to the full consultation results document for further details.

We also produced a full ‘Issues Consultation Results’ document here if you prefer a more traditional document format. 

You can view full copies of the responses we received to the Issues Consultation by visiting the Joint Local Plan Regulation 18 Part 1 Response Library List.

Call for Land and Buildings Available for Change

Between 19 August and 30 September 2021 we invited landowners, agents, developers, community groups and others who were interested in having land considered for development, to submit information to the Councils on the sites they wanted to be assessed as part of the Joint Local Plan. Submissions made through this exercise supplement sites previously submitted as part of the Vale of White Horse Call for Sites which took place in 2020.

The boundaries of the land and buildings submitted as part of these exercises, along with some high level information about these sites, can be found on our interactive Call for Land and Buildings Available for Change webpage.

Landscape Character Assessment

To support our work for the emerging Joint Local Plan, we’re preparing a new Landscape Character Assessment. This study is being carried out by environmental consultancy Land Use Consultants (LUC) on behalf of both South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.

As part of this study, we called for residents, businesses and visitors to share what you love about our local landscapes and what you think is changing them through a consultation held in autumn 2023. Find out more about the study from our press release (18 August 2023).

Keep up to date with the latest Joint Local Plan news:

If you’d like to receive planning policy consultations and updates (including those about the Joint Local Plan and Supplementary Planning Documents) and/or general council consultation notifications, please register your details using our sign up form.