Cherwell Local Plan 2040 Consultation:

Cherwell's  consultation on the draft Local Plan review closed on Friday November 3rd 2023.

Our thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

As you will know, the last plan - the “Partial Review”, adopted in 2020, already provides for at least 4,400 new houses (likely to be more) in the area around Kidlington. Planning applications for many of these have already been submitted.

One particularly concerning aspect of the draft  Local Plan Review 2040 - is that the Council is now proposing to allow yet more housing on the Green Belt, this time at land behind the Moors. Previously it had said it would not do this. In its last consultation in September 2021, the Council stated (page 88):

“Due to the planned housing growth at Kidlington and the Green Belt we have not included an option for further residential development at this time beyond that identified in the Partial Review.”

We don’t know why the Council has changed its mind. However, yet again, the Council is planning for many more houses across the District than it needs to. The Government requires Cherwell to provide for 742 houses each year, but Cherwell is planning for 1009. In addition it is providing for another 284 each year for Oxford, even though the Government’s calculations would require nothing like that number,

We don’t think that the land behind the Moors is a suitable site for housing. Our reasons for this are listed here. At the last consultation we submitted a proposal that it should be designated a Local Green Space due to it's openess, history and importance to the community. The Council chose to ignore this in favour of suggesting 300 houses.

The consultation on the draft plan can be found on Cherwell’s website at:

https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/local-plan-review-2040

Here you can find a print version of the plan which you can download or you can view the document chapter by chapter. The main proposals for Kidlington are in Chapter 6 which you may find interesting. The current details of the Moors proposal agre given on  Pages 260 and 261 of the Draft Local Plan.