Green Belt protest during Plan Inspector’s visit

ANGRY residents demonstrated against a proposed major development in the Green Belt at Culham, as Inspector Jonathan Bore completed his investigations into South Oxfordshire’s emerging Local Plan with a visit to Culham Science Centre today, Wednesday, August 12. 

Culham protesters at an earlier protest gathering

The Local Plan 2034 includes a proposal to build 3,500 houses on Green Belt Land at Culham, Oxfordshire, between the Europa School and the railway. The campaigners assert that the development would be the equivalent to a new town the size of Wallingford. Access to the site is limited on roads that are already saturated, they say. The village of Culham currently has 450 habitants and  this project would change a small village into a town of 9,000 people.

The protesters also say that there would be no investment in infrastructure before the first 750 houses are built which would put a strain on already busy roads and junctions at Clifton-Hampden and into Abingdon where very long queues and delays occur every day.

They also fear that as drop off and pick up at the Europa School is a real challenge as things stand, an increase in traffic would be safety concern.

Green Party District Councillor, Sam Casey-Rerhaye, who accompanied Mr Bore on the visit in her capacity as a Culham Parish Councillor, said: “The Plan was written under the former Conservative administration and is being forced through by a Conservative government. Six of the seven ‘strategic sites’ are in the Green Belt – land that is protected and should only be built on in exceptional circumstances, including environmentally sensitive land close to the Thames at Culham. 

“The wishes of local voters were ignored when Secretary of State Robert Jenrick issued a legal order to force the plan through to Examination, and it appears that our local Conservative MP John Howell’s claim that substantial changes could be made at the Examination stage was unfounded.” 

A Green Party Spokesperson said: “Green Councillors stood with local residents at the local plan hearings, the first ever to be conducted online, and spent a combined 45 hours making the case for changes, including reduced overall numbers, removal of Green Belt and unsustainable sites from the plan, and more social and affordable housing. During last Friday’s “wash-up” session of the inspector’s initial conclusions, some Green amendments were accepted, such as prioritisation of walking and cycling on new developments, community-led housing and enhanced climate change policies. 

“However, the contentious elements of the plan, including the major Green Belt site allocations, look set to pass relatively unchanged, a real kick in the teeth for local residents who spent a great deal of time and effort to make incredibly powerful arguments during the examination.

“Perhaps a taste of things to come under Mr Jenrick’s planning ‘reforms’ which will further erode democratic input into what is built locally.”

During the Examination sessions, the main promoters of the Green Belt sites allocated in the plan were the large housing developers, Oxford City Council who felt the housing sites to meet Oxford’s housing needs, should be close to the city, and some of the Oxford colleges who own large tracts of green belt land. For such sites to be acceptable in the Plan, the Inspector will need to be satisfied that no alternative sites would have been better suited for development, or in planning terms, ‘sustainable’.

The ‘Examination in Public’ of the emerging Local Plan 2034, is the first ever to have been carried out in Public. Following the close of the Hearings, the Inspector will identify the main modifications he requires in order to make the Plan sound and legally compliant should that prove possible. Main modifications will require further consultation, prior to the conclusion of the Inspector’s Examination.