What is the Local Plan?

West Oxfordshire District Council has to submit to the Gov’t Planning Inspectorate a long term, 15-year, Local Plan, which covers a number of their responsibilities including housing. The current Local Plan 2031 was reviewed in 2022, and consequently is due to be superseded by the new 2041 Plan, probably in 2025.

Despite many concerns about flooding, traffic, pollution and viability, WODC continues to include the North Witney Strategic Development Area (up to 1400 houses) in its current and emerging Draft 2041 Local Plan. This is despite all the major problems that this particular site has, over a ten-year period, consistently thrown up.

Having a sustainable and robust Local Plan ensures that speculative developments are easily and successfully rejected by the District Council.

In the opinion of the NWAG, the North Witney SDA is neither sustainable nor robust – as can be seen by the ongoing delays and issues.

This is creating openings for speculative developments throughout the district. WODC needs to address this problem urgently, and certainly for the upcoming 2041 Local Plan.