30/11/11…..Support for Thame community allocating sites for new housing

IT appears that the Planning Inspector who will decide how future housing will be allocated within Thame and the rest of South Oxfordshire, is moving towards allowing the people of Thame to decide for themselves where most of the new homes will go.

The latest draft conclusions by the Inspector, largely dealing with the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of the draft Core Strategy for future development, are available to be read on South Oxfordshire District Council’s website:LINK

Particularly relevant to Thame, is: INSPECTOR?S DRAFT CONCLUSIONS FOR TESTING THROUGH SA – Topic area 5, in the document ID/34 which states:

“Topic area 5 Thame
5.1 Policy CSTHA2 Reword as follows:- ?New allocations at Thame

The Neighbourhood Plan for Thame will allocate land for 775 new homes on land selected through that process as the most appropriate and sustainable.?

5.2 Paras 11.14 to 11.16 Reword as follows:-

11.14 Provision of additional housing will help to support the town centre?s attraction in relation to nearby centres and maintain Thame?s services and facilities.

The overall strategy is to provide 775 additional houses to 2027 on sites selected by a neighbourhood plan.

11.15 The selected sites will need to have a form and character which meet identified needs and be planned comprehensively in accordance with agreed design
briefs reflecting policies CSQ1-4 and other relevant policies in the Local Development Framework. The developments should avoid building on areas of land
within flood zones 2 and 3, provide safe pedestrian and cycle links to the town centre, and make provision (or provide contributions towards) such necessary supporting infrastructure as is set out in the infrastructure delivery plan.’

“Skeleton reasoning – topic area 5

The proposed allocated site (F) has many favourable sustainability credentials.
However, it is unclear that it has the scope to accommodate 600 new homes together with sensitively planned structural planting on a sufficiently generous scale to avoid excessive damage to the attractive sloping landscape on this side of the town as
appreciated, for example, from the Thame Valley Walk.

“An allocation on this scale has therefore not been shown to be justified.

A number of other potential sites around the town have been found to have their particular advantages and disadvantages and their own supporters and opponents at various times in the evolution of the CS (Core Strategy). Moreover, the post-submission changes to
the CS acknowledge that Thame?s housing growth cannot all be accommodated on one site, and it is evident that there is considerable local support for directing it to a number of different locations.

An important new factor is that the Town Council has recently been awarded frontrunner status in neighbourhood planning and has commenced that process with the assistance of a planning consultancy specialising in master-planning and urban design. This process offers an opportunity to build a community-based approach to the identification of the CS housing provision, together with consideration of the
implications of any school relocation that may be shown to be necessary. The current estimated timescale for this work may be over-optimistic and, to judge by the
evolution of the CS proposals for Thame, the process will not necessarily be straightforward or without considerable contention. However, the process has already commenced and has the potentia to result in a full set of allocations in a shorter timescale than would be required if the Site Allocations DPD were dealing with the balance of the outstanding 175 sites.

“It would be premature and unsound to make a
substantial allocation at site F merely because the Council is ?on the cusp? of the 5-year land supply. This change would therefore make theCS justified and effective in its approach to allocations in Thame.”