Welcome to the Oxford Preservation Trust

Planning: Green Belt Issues 2006

Pressure to review the Green Belt and build south of the city continues. Following the County Council’s submission to the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) stating that the required housing numbers could be accommodated without a review of the Green Belt, SEERA produced a draft plan on this basis setting out a vision for the future of the South East, including Oxfordshire, to 2026. The Trust commissioned some research on available land and housing numbers, and was able to submit written comments showing that there was no need for a review of the Green Belt. However, others from within the City are pressing for such a review. The Trust has been given a place at the Examination in Public (EiP) into the draft plan which began in November, with the discussions of the Green Belt to take place in February 2007.

In July 2006 The Barker Review in Land Use Planning by economist Kate Barker was published. Government ministers, at the publication of the report, mentioned Oxford as an example of a city where the Green Belt had restricted growth.

At district and city levels the councils have been working on their plans for development to 2026. Both South Oxfordshire District Council and Cherwell District Council consulted on Site Allocations proposals, and within the City a call for landowners and developers to put forward suggestions for the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment closed just before Christmas. In October Oxford City Council heard that their bid to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to be a ‘new growth point’ had been successful. The city was confirmed as one of 29 towns and cities with the potential to deliver up to 100,000 extra new homes over the next ten years — 5,692 in Oxford — and to share in £40m start-up funding to support infrastructure, unlock sites for new housing and to assess and mitigate environmental impacts. As the year closed the City Council declared its intention to make a bid for unitary authority status early in 2007.

Extract from the Trust’s 2006 Annual Report