Council Sets Out Preferred Sites For Future Development

THAME Town Council has set out its preferred site options for the future growth of the town – which could amount to 487 new homes within the next 10 years.
Its response is part of a consultation process currently being carried out by SODC, to identify the best housing and employment sites to meet the future needs of the district.
A report, produced by Town Cllr David Bretherton, presented at Tuesday’s Planning Committee meeting, assumed that TTC’s preferred option, to see growth shared between Henley, Thame, Wallingford and some modest growth of larger villages, could mean one quarter of the 1,950 being allocated to Thame.

Cllr Bretherton used three main criteria in assessing the merits of each of the areas of land around Thame that have been submitted by landowners in the Site Allocations Plan consultation, as possible development sites:
1) Government objectectives (as set out in Planning Policy Guidance)
2) The objectives of the Site Allocation Plan (which includes “To secure the provision of affordable housing to meet local needs” and “To conserve and enhance the distinctive character of the built and natural environment in South Oxfordshire towns, villages and countryside”) and
3) Sustainability.

He scored each site by looking at such things as their proximity to bus routes, whether they were so-called Brown field sites, whether they were within walking distance to the town centre and their demand on existing resources.

The site that came out best was land at Thame United Football Club, Windmill Road, its merits being that it is a Brown field site, would be “highly sustainable in terms of location and access to services particularly John Hampden primary school”, and that any development “would be within existing boundaries of the town and thus considered as an urban environment where higher densities of housing would be possible.”

Sites considered in Cllr Bretherton’s report for possible future EMPLOYMENT, included land at Memec and land adjacent to Jane Morbey Road.

Members of the public have had two opportunities to express their views at two exhibitions held in the town hall and via South Oxfordshire District Council’s website.

The consultation ends tomorrow, November 17.