Issue - decisions
Cotswold National Landscape Management Plan 2025-2030
25/04/2025 - Cotswold National Landscape Management Plan 2025-2030
Councillor Hugo Ashton, Executive Member for Planning, introduced the item the purpose of which was to consider and endorse the Cotswolds National Landscape Management Plan 2025 – 2030.
Councillor Ashton summarised the report and management plan stating that:
- One third of the district fell within the Cotswold National Landscape.
- It was a legal requirement for a National Landscape to have a management plan which was to be reviewed every five years or sooner.
- The new plan had been prepared by the Cotswolds National Landscape Board who now sought formal endorsement from the district.
- The success of the delivery of the plan was dependent on a wide variety of stakeholders including West Oxfordshire District Council.
- It was a legal requirement to seek to preserve and enhance the Cotswold National Landscape.
- The structure of the plan comprised four main components: a vision, key issues, special qualities and outcomes and policies. The vision had been drawn in relation to climate emergency, natures decline and health and societal changes. The special qualities focused on what made the Cotswold National Landscape distinctive and valuable. There were fourteen outcomes specified which the Council could be fully aligned with.
- With regard to policies, distinctions between the management plan policies and West Oxfordshire Local Plan policies were clear. The Local Plan formed the statutory plan for the district and the management plan was not part of this and thus did not carry the same weight as the Local Plan. However, Councillor Ashton suggested that the management plan was a material consideration for planning which would continue in the new Local Plan currently under development. Where policies of the Council and Cotswold National Landscape Board did not align the management plan acknowledged this and recognised that its own polices were aspirational.
Councillor Ashton concluded that the next step would be to draft a letter to the Cotswold National Landscape Management Board based on the Officer recommendation.
In the discussion it was noted that the special quality of the Cotswold National Landscape could also be defined by the continuous human settlement over many generations, and its farming and management. It was hoped that this would continue to be supported. The new West Oxfordshire Local Plan would encourage appropriate development, in particular rural exception sites. West Oxfordshire had an outside representative who attended the Cotswold National Landscape Board including their activities and events.
Councillor Ashton proposed accepting the recommendations of the report with the addition of a further recommendation as follows:
“Delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning, to draft a letter to the Cotswold National Landscape (CNL) Board confirming the Council’s endorsement of the Cotswold National Landscape Management Plan 2025-2030”.
Councillor Andrew Prosser seconded the recommendations.
This was voted on and approved unanimously.
RESOLVED:
That the Executive:
1. Noted the content of the report; and
2. Formally endorsed the Cotswolds National Landscape Management Plan 2025 – 2030 attached at Annex A.
3. Delegated authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning, to draft a letter to the Cotswold National Landscape (CNL) Board confirming the Council’s endorsement of the Cotswold National Landscape Management Plan 2025-2030.