Climate Change considerations to influence new Local Plan 2034

HAVING decided to re-appaise the current emerging Local Plan 2034, the new Cabinet at South Oxfordshire District Council, is to recommend to full Council to make some significant changes to the plan, in particular, to ‘strengthen climate change considerations’.

The current draft plan was ready for its final stage, going to a government Inspector for approval, just before the local elections in May. But the new administration, now led by a coalition of mainly Greens and Liberal Democratics, wanted to take a fresh look at it in the light of the council having declared a Climate Emergency, and possible changes in Oxford City’s Local Plan regarding its housing numbers, and other concerns.

At it’s meeting last night, July 11, Cabinet agreed the following recommendation to full Council, members of which will consider it at their next meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2019:

“That the Council:
(1) express its determination to maintain its housing land supply and avoid speculative housing development;

(2) express its continued support for the Housing and Infrastructure Fund (HIF) funding and the proposed infrastructure projects that will be delivered by it;

(3) ask officers to explore with Oxfordshire County Council, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England options for protecting the HIF funding whilst enabling the council to address concerns about the current emerging Local Plan 2034 including (but not limited to) climate change issues and Oxford City’s unmet housing need, and to report back to Cabinet and Council;

(4) recognising that the Climate Change Emergency is all too real and is recognised to be of key and statutory importance under the Climate Change Act 2008 and the associated objective of “zero carbon by 2050”, express its wish to do all that it can to respond through the Local Plan process;

(5) agree that as soon as practicable, alongside satisfactory progress being made on resolving issues in the emerging Local Plan, work on a subsequent Local Plan shall commence, strengthening climate change considerations.”

Any new plan will be subject to a public consultation before it is re-submitted for inspection.

** To read the background information on the current draft Local Plan 2034, and the options that were/are open to district councillors, visit the following link: http://democratic.southoxon.gov.uk/documents/s16696/Report.pdf (Note: Councillors opted to recommend Option 3 at a recent meeting of the Scrutiny Committee)