Oxford Brookes Universtiy Master Plan is no longer going to be considered by the Vale Cabinet as a supplementary planning document to the emerging Local Plan.

Officers thought there were too many unresilved issues, mainly having to do with adeqacy of roads infrastructure to accommodate the expansion, for approval to go ahead at this time.

So the master plan has been withdrawn.

This is a win for local people, especially the Harcourt Hill residents, who relentlessly pointed out that intractable problems were not being addressed, and that it wasn’t good enough to have a promise to address them in the future.

No one has provided a good answer to the question of what sort of benefit being an approved Supplementary Planning Document, granted to the university. Some thought it handed the owners an easier pass through the planning application approval process.

We can rest a little easier in this knowledge: both County and Vale officers opine that the roads and access problems are significant and need addressing with any expansion plans.