Issue - meetings
West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041 – Preferred Options Consultation
Meeting: 05/03/2025 - Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 111)
111 West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041 – Preferred Options Consultation 
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Purpose:
To provide an update on the emerging draft West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2041 including the Regulation 18 ‘preferred options’ public consultation which is scheduled to begin in May 2025.
Recommendation:
That the Committee considers the report and agrees any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive on 12 March 2025.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Executive Member for Planning explained that the purpose of the report was to update Members on the status of work on the Local Plan, and in particular the preferred options consultations paper. The Council intended to publish the preferred options consultation paper in May 2025 and invite comments and feedback on the draft planning policies and available choices. A cross-party working group had met several times and had received national policy updates and drafts of the emerging planning policies, which fell into three broad categories:
- Strategic, high-level core policies
- Place based policies e.g. for towns and the Cotswold National Landscape area
- Development management policies, used for day-to-day decisions on planning applications.
The new Local Plan would fully align with updated National Planning Policy Framework, including the requirement for the district to deliver 905 homes per year for the durations of the 20 year-plan period. The marked differences from the existing Local Plan were set out in paragraph 3.4 of the report.
The Executive Member said that he had hoped to bring forward some draft policies in March but for various reasons that had not been possible. An Executive meeting had been scheduled for 14 May 2025 and, if approved, the Regulation 18 preferred options consultation would begin in late-May. The Local Development Scheme would be amended accordingly as it currently stated early-May.
The Committee discussed the report and noted that:
- There was some disappointment that the consultation had been delayed although this was understandable.
- The Local Plan would seek to protect land for a possible future railway line between Carterton and Oxford. The railway line would be difficult to achieve but the Council wanted to keep the opportunity open.
- The Local Plan could go some way to promoting cycling and walking and there was a need to engage with the County Council.
- There was a greater reliance on private cars in a rural district compared to a city and a need for proper off-street parking.
- There was little to scrutinise at this stage since the report was simply an update on the process.
The Committee noted the report.