The Vale Tories want to remove the Louie Memorial Upper Playing Field, and the Fogwell Road Playing Fields (plus two other plots) from the Oxford Green Belt, to free those sites up for potential housing development.

I’m grateful to an astute local resident for pointing this out to me. If I hadn’t run into him, I’d never have seen it, because it’s buried deep.

The Vale is in need of sites for housing development. One constraint they’ve hit is the Oxford Green Belt, which is protected against development in all but the most exceptional crcumstances.

The Tory Cabinet commissioned a study to identify all the bits of land in the Green Belt on the outer edges of settlements. They want to change the Green Belt boundaries to exclude these areas, so that they can be used for housing development.

See the reports here: http://bit.ly/1dmMMHB (scroll down to Green Belt Review). If you look at the Phase 3 report, see page 4. (I’ve reproduced it as a photo here; click on it to make it bigger.) These are part of the so-called ‘evidence’ supporting their Local Plan, currently out for consultation. There was no consultation briefing held in Botley, despite requests fron the parish council, ostensibly because there are no strategic housing sites proposed for Botley. But this Green Belt grab is serious business.

The Lib Dem group has fomally objected to this piecemeal tinkering with the Green Belt. But Local people may want to make their views more clear!

Consultation ends at noon on the 4th of April. Click here for how to comment: http://bit.ly/1gWSjDJ