Whose plan?….

IN a very unusual move, Oxfordshire County Council today voted to accept an invitation from the Minister responsible for housing, Robert Jenrick MP – if he were to send it – to take over the production of South Oxfordshire District Council’s Local Plan 2034.

The Liberal Democrat and Green coalition that has led the district council since May’s local elections, believed that the 28,500 new homes figure in the plan drawn up by the previous Conservative SODC administration, was excessive. So, they sought to amend the Local Plan back in October, to reflect more the climate emergency and fewer homes that they, the new administration, say they fought and won their mandate on in the May 2020 General Election.

Tetchy Councillors

After presentations from CPRE, several SODC Councillors, including their Leader, Sue Cooper, and a young mother of two, followed by an ill-natured at times, lengthy debate, the decision came with a vote of 39 for, 16 against and 4 abstentions. Two of the abstentions to the motion, to accept the invitation from the Minister, came from Thame and Chinnor’s County Councillors, Jeannette Matelot Green and Nick Carter.

Some County Councillors, mainly LibDems, held the view that it would be undemocratic to take the Local Plan away from the SODC, the designated Planning authority elected in May, elected with a mandate to look again at ‘excessive’ housing numbers in the plan and lack of consideration for Climate Change coming down the line. Others though, mainly on the Conservative and Labour side of the argument, were of the view that withdrawing and delaying the plan was wrong of SODC and the only way to get it through, and to get the £368 million infrastructure fund for itself to spend, would be to take over from SODC, if the minister asked it to.

There was much debate as to the legality of the Minister’s proposed action and whether the county council would put itself at financial and/or legal risk by taking over the plan. Many Councillors veered off into what a good plan should contain eg more social housing. but eventually a vote was taken and the final result was to accept the Minister’s invitation, if it came.

Afterwards, Cllr Sue Cooper said: “I regret the decision made by the county council today, and would like to thank those who came to the meeting to support the principle of local democracy and decision-making. We wish to continue working constructively with the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government and Oxfordshire County Council to keep local plan making with South Oxfordshire.

“We would like to know more about the Secretary of State’s suggestion to propose changes to the plan through the examination process, with the aim of putting our plan at the forefront of the latest bold and far-reaching thinking on the climate emergency, rather than being the last of the environmentally damaging plans.

“Our preference remains to discuss the mechanism to propose such changes in a face-to-face meeting with the Secretary of State, as he agreed in parliament in response to a question from Layla Moran MP. We are yet to hear back from the Secretary of State on our request to hold this meeting.

“If we are prevented from withdrawing this plan and working on a new one ourselves, we must at least be able to uphold the principle of local democracy by proposing improvements.”

Writing on OCC’s Facebook page, Ian Hudspeth, Leader of the council, wrote: ““This is a very unusual position we find ourselves in. It is something that neither I nor Oxfordshire County Council have proactively sought.

“I thank county councillors for taking part in today’s debate and the vote that followed. The only way to have local input in to the progression of South Oxfordshire’s Local Plan was for us to take the difficult decision to accept an invitation if this is received from the Secretary of State.

“This way forward would give the very best opportunity for South Oxfordshire residents to feed into the process as it evolves, as well as seeing the many infrastructure benefits that it could provide. By not progressing the Local Plan we could lose £368m for much required infrastructure.

“We have a strong and longstanding partnership with our partners at South Oxfordshire District Council on many issues and we want to maintain that for the benefit of people of South Oxfordshire.”

Oxfordshire County Council has not yet received an invitation from central Government.

PREVIOUSLY: Link HERE