Only 9 days left to say what YOU think of new Local Plan

PEOPLE in Thame and the rest of South Oxfordshire have only days left if they want to give their views on updated proposals for how the district should meet, what the district council says, is a need for more new housing to 2032.

So far almost 1,000 responses have been submitted while over 1,300 people have attended special drop in sessions across the district to find out more about the plans. However, people only have until 4.30pm on Friday, August 19, to submit their comments on the plans.

‘No thanks’ says Thame Town Council to ‘dreadful’ plan

SODC’s Local Plan 2032, includes its ‘Preferred Options’ – which for Thame, include provision for an additional 600 new homes, on top of over 700 ‘enshrined’ in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan. At a packed public meeting held last Thursday, August 4, at St Mary’s church in Thame, the most strongly expressed feeling was against any more new homes in the town, and that any necessary infrastructure should be in place before any additional development, if there was any.

Thame Town Council is strongly against any more development in Thame and at a meeting of its Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Commmitte, Councillors called the plan ‘dreadful’, and ‘a poor piece of work with holes all over it’. Cllr Ann Midwinter questioned SODC’s motives, and said that it needed to be made clear to SODC that it was necessary to concentrate on the impact the proposed plan would have on Thame, and not on the discussions about a Unitary council.

People of Haddenham feel ‘dumped on’

Councillors also fear the impact on Thame of the proposed Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan, for whcih a public meeting meeting was held last week in Haddenham, attended by three district councillors and a Senior Planning Officer. Reporting back to the NPCC, Cllr Mike Dyer said: “The people of Haddenham feel as though they are being dumped on big time!” (5,500 extra houses are proposed for Haddenham)

He reported that a very strongly worded letter to Wycombe District Council from Haddenham, accused Wycombe DC of ‘abusing ‘ its position, by allowing a lower housing density in its own area, thereby forcing more houses elsewhere, to meet an unmet need for houses in its own district (15 houses per hectare in Wycombe, and 25-30 in Thame) !

What else?

Over the past three years, South Oxfordshire District Council has been preparing its new Local Plan 2032. The document will set out where the main new housing sites in the district should go, as well as the shops, jobs, road improvements and leisure facilities needed for the district. The plan will also include detailed policies the council will use to help decide planning applications for the lifetime of the plan. It is hoped that this will be delivered through the neighbourhood planning process – in Thame’s case, a revised Neighbourhood Plan.

A completely new settlement?

The consultation includes seven possible options for a new sustainable settlement of 3,500 new homes. The council’s preferred option is to build a new community on the Chalgrove Airfield, which is near to existing and future employment sites. Most of the other options are in the green belt, which the council has said it does not believe is appropriate.

Thame Town Council will be submitting its draft response to the Consultation to SODC, along with the presentation it made at the public meeting in Thame last week.

How YOU can have your say

To view the proposals and have your say on the Local Plan 2032 and the Sustainability Appraisal, visit www.southoxon.gov.uk/newlocalplan.