West Oxfordshire District Council - Issue - items at meetings - Salt Cross Garden Village Area Action Plan (AAP)

Purpose

To consider the formal adoption of the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP).

Recommendations

The Executive recommends that Council resolves to:

1. Accept the Inspectors’ recommendations regarding the Main Modifications required to make the AAP sound as set out at Annex A and Annex B;

2. Agree the incorporation of the additional modifications as set out at Annex C;

3. Adopt the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP) attached at Annex D as a development plan document, incorporating all of the Main Modifications recommended by the Inspectors at Annex A and Annex B, together with the additional modifications at Annex C, in accordance with Regulation 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012;

4. Authorise the Head of Planning in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning, prior to the publication of the adopted Salt Cross AAP, to correct any minor spelling, grammatical or typographical errors together with any improvements from a presentational perspective including paragraph and policy numbering;

5. Note that the adoption of the Salt Cross AAP will supersede certain aspects of the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2031 insofar as they relate to Salt Cross with immediate effect, specifically; Figure 3.2 of the AAP updates Figure 9.5e of the Local Plan, AAP Policy 16 supersedes Local Plan Policy T4 in respect of car parking standards and AAP Policy 25 supersedes Local Plan Policy H5 in respect of custom and self-build housing.

Purpose:

To consider the formal adoption of the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP).

Recommendations:

That the Executive resolves to recommend to Council to:

1. Accept the Inspectors’ recommendations regarding the Main Modifications required to make the AAP sound as set out at Annex A and Annex B;

2. Agree the incorporation of the additional modifications as set out at Annex C;

3. Adopt the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP) attached at Annex D as a development plan document, incorporating all of the Main Modifications recommended by the Inspectors at Annex A and Annex B, together with the additional modifications at Annex C, in accordance with Regulation 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012;

4. Authorise the Head of Planning in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning, prior to the publication of the adopted Salt Cross AAP, to correct any minor spelling, grammatical or typographical errors together with any improvements from a presentational perspective including paragraph and policy numbering;

5. Note that the adoption of the Salt Cross AAP will supersede certain aspects of the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2031 insofar as they relate to Salt Cross with immediate effect, specifically; Figure 3.2 of the AAP updates Figure 9.5e of the Local Plan, AAP Policy 16 supersedes Local Plan Policy T4 in respect of car parking standards and AAP Policy 25 supersedes Local Plan Policy H5 in respect of custom and self-build housing.

Councillor Hugo Ashton, Executive Member for Planning, introduced the item, the purpose of which was to consider the formal adoption of the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP).

In his presentation Councillor Ashton made the following points:

Councillor Ashton expressed his gratitude to all of those that had been involved in this important milestone project. Councillor Ashton specifically mentioned: the community of Eynsham; those involved in the High Court Case and the Planning Team.
The Salt Cross development was expected to anchor the current and Emerging Local Plans.
The approval of the recommendations would allow a promotor to submit an outline planning application to progress the project to the next stage.
Councillor Ashton gave background to the process from the initial work on the Area Action Plan (AAP) in 2018 through to publication of the Inspector’s Report in January 2026 which had outlined her overall conclusions and the main modifications needed to make the policy sound.
Main modifications could be seen in Annex A of the report and those modifications specific to Policy 2 could be seen in Annex B.
The Council had discretion to make minor changes to the policy that did not materially effect the content, these could be seen in Annex C.
Annex D was a composite version of the AAP and incorporated all modifications from Annexes A, B and C.
It was important to note that the recommendations were binding on the Council and must either be accepted in whole or not at all.
Councillor Ashton proposed accepting the recommendations included in the report.

The alternative options that were contained in the report were:

The District Council could choose not to formally adopt the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP) but this would mean there would be no detailed planning policy framework in place against which to consider any current or future planning applications pertaining to Salt Cross Garden Village. This would create a significant degree of uncertainty and lead to further delays with delivery.

Councillor Andy Graham, Leader of the Council, seconded the proposal and stated that the Salt Cross project had taken many years to come to fruition, through several administrations. It would deliver over 2,000 high quality homes at net-zero and would set a template for the whole of the UK for such developments. The development would benefit people’s lives in many ways including energy use.

Councillor Duncan Enright, Deputy Leader of the Council, commented that it was welcome that the Salt Cross development would be a mixed development of housing and employment areas.

Councillor Andrew Prosser suggested that Salt Cross would be a nationally important exemplar project and it was therefore important to ensure that the project continued to be developed in the correct manner.

A non-Executive Member in attendance queried how quickly the properties at Salt Cross would contribute towards the Council’s housing supply in terms of the Council’s planning obligations. It was noted that the properties would contribute to the plan in the longer term, however the exact date was ... view the full minutes text for item 461

Issue - meetings

Salt Cross Garden Village Area Action Plan (AAP)

Meeting: 25/02/2026 - Council (Item 10.)

Meeting: 11/02/2026 - Executive (Item 461)

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