Eye and Dunsden Neighbourhood Plan

Eye and Dunsden Parish Council is working on creating a neighbourhood plan to influence the way their area grows and develops into the future.

What’s happening now?

Eye and Dunsden Parish Council is working on a neighbourhood plan which has recently been submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council.

The publicity period on the draft plan concluded on 27 January 2026. The draft plan documents and comments received during the public period have now been submitted for independent examination.

Andrew Ashcroft has been appointed by the District Council to carry out the examination. The examiner’s role is to make recommendations on the draft plan, and ultimately recommend if the plan should proceed to referendum. Take a look at the Examination Arrangements.

The examiner has issued a Clarification Note, setting out initial comments on the submitted plan and outlining areas where further clarification would be useful.

Focused Consultation on Modifications in response to Sections 98 & 99 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023:

On 25 March 2026, the Government commenced several provisions of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA), including Sections 98 and 99, which introduce changes relevant to neighbourhood planning. The Government did not introduce transitional arrangements for these provisions, meaning that they apply to all neighbourhood plans currently in progress.

The District Council has advised the Parish Council to update their Basic Conditions Statement and Neighbourhood Plan to respond to these changes, and set out that a further focused six-week consultation should be held, run by the District Council, inviting comments solely on this matter. The examiner issued a Process Note which also set out that the Basic Conditions Statement should be updated, and that the examination of the Plan will continue whilst this matter is addressed.

The District Council is therefore inviting comments on the updated Basic Conditions Statement and updates made to the Neighbourhood Plan from Thursday 30 April to 11:59pm on Monday 15 June 2026.

A Modifications Document has been provided setting out the specific modifications made in response to these changes. Please note that comments should be related to the changes listed in the Modifications Document.

You can view the consultation documents below:

You can view the supporting documents below:

Examination documents:

Paper copies of the consultation documents are available to view at The Crown, Playhatch, RG4 9QN at the following times:

Monday – Thursday	7:00 – 23:00
Friday	7:00 – 00:00
Saturday	8:00 – 00:00
Sunday and Bank Holidays	8:00 – 22:30

The documents can also be viewed by appointment at the District Council’s office at Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon OX14 3JE on Monday to Thursday 8.30am – 5pm and Friday 8.30am – 4pm. Please email or call us to make an appointment.

Paper copies of any of the appendices can be obtained on request.

The consultation documents can be made available to view in an alternative format (for example large print, braille, audio, email, easy read and alternative languages) on request.

Please contact us on 01235 422600 or email planning.policy@southandvale.gov.uk if you need help accessing the consultation materials or have any queries about this consultation.

If you know anyone you think would be interested in this consultation, who does not have access to the internet, we would appreciate your help in telling them about it. Please ask them to get in touch with us via our contact details provided above.

How to comment

The quickest and easiest way to join the conversation is to use our online comment form. Comments can also be made by:

emailing planning.policy@southandvale.gov.uk
writing to Planning Policy, South Oxfordshire District Council and post to ‘Freepost SOUTH AND VALE CONSULTATIONS’ (no other address information or stamp is needed)
completing a paper comment form and posting or emailing it back to us

Next steps

After the consultation ends, your comments, name, email (if applicable) and postal address will be sent to an independent examiner to consider. The opportunity for further comments at this stage would only be at the specific request of the examiner.

Most neighbourhood plans are examined without the need for a public hearing. If you think the neighbourhood plan requires a public hearing, you can state this in your comments, but the examiner will make the final decision.

Please clearly state in your comments if you wish to be notified of our decision on whether we formally adopt the Neighbourhood Plan.

All personal data will be held securely by the council and examiner in line with the Data Protection Act 2018. Comments submitted by individuals will be published on our website alongside their name. Details within your comments referring to specific addresses, including your home address, may be published where these are relevant to the planning matters being consulted on. No other contact details will be published. Comments submitted by businesses or organisations will be published in full, including contact details. Further information on how we store personal data is provided in our privacy statement.

More information on the process is available on our Neighbourhood Planning Resources page.

If you would like to discuss neighbourhood planning with a member of the team, please contact us.