UPDATE 20 April: More housing in the village?
More housing in our village?
Our District Council has been asked to meet Government targets on the supply of land for residential housing and in response is about to adopt an Interim Housing Supply Policy to identify land for an additional 1000 homes to be built within the Vale of White Horse over the next two years. The policy suspends the adopted Local Plan and gives developers the opportunity to propose building on land where planning permission would currently be refused.
Using, in my opinion a half-baked calculation, our parish is expected to need an additional 67 houses by 2026 to maintain its current population. Clearly, building this number of houses by 2014 would boost the population! Oxfordshire County Council has advised that our primary school could cope, ‘after some remodelling’, with children from an extra 75 houses, but issues of sewage disposal and utility supply remain to be addressed.
The planning department has received seven outline proposals for a total of 293 houses within the parish and will invite selected developers to submit a planning application in the normal way. I would expect an invitation (or invitations) for a total of around 70.
Of the seven sites, two relate to developments each of 5 houses off the Oxford Road. A third is for houses on the Southmoor House site. The remaining four are for larger developments. Proposals for development of land between School Lane and Witney Road were highlighted in last month’s KBSNews. Unsurprisingly two proposals relate to land between Draycott Road and Beggars Lane, one each side of the footpath from the Waggon and Horses to Longworth. Building around 70 houses on any of these three sites is likely to leave room for substantial future housing. The final proposal is for development of land opposite the Waggon and Horses. This is the only proposal which identifies benefits to the community, in this case an amount of public open space, possibly including junior cricket and football pitches. Apart from the maps which identify the site boundaries, most have minimal additional information or justification for their selection. There is also a proposal for eight houses on land near the Roundhouse and Lamb and Flag in Hinton Waldrist parish.
The above do not include the proposal for a development of 50 houses to the south of Kingston House which would include the building of a new cricket pavilion, as highlighted in February’s KBSNews. This would include 20 affordable homes for rent or shared ownership. I would expect a similar number of affordable homes for the larger proposals summarised above.
Your views on the proposed sites are wanted by 20 April. You can send your comments to Laura Howard, Planning Department, VWHDC, Tel: 01235 540499, by post to Abingdon OX14 3JE, or email
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You can also make your views known to the Parish Council at its meeting on 2 April oUr at the Annual Parish Meeting on 3 April.
KBS Online brings you the Parish Council’s recommendations on the eight sites submitted by developers for further housing.
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