16 July 2014 full council meeting.

Question from Councillor Debby Hallett to Councill Mike Murray, Cabinet member for planning policy:

The Vale consulted on its draft Local Plan 2029 in February 2013. How many responses were received, and could the Cabinet member please tell me when the consequentional changes made to the first draft Local Plan 2029 will be made public, and how he intends to highlight what has changed between the drafts?

He said, and I scribbled:

Report was published Feb 2014 that told us 2340 reponses from 500 people and organisations. The next draft will be published later this year. The consequential changes will be part of that draft.

My supplementary question:

What does the Cabinet member see as the purpose of his Local Plan Consultations? That is, what is the overall intention of Consultations?

He repeated the official line, that’s it’s to get opinion of the public to inform decision making.

My bet is that Doric’s contribution to the Local Plan 2029 we consulted on will still be in there, in spite of many of us reponsing that it wasn’t our vision for Botley.

I’ve also sent a query as to the status of Oxford Brooks University’s Master Plan. It was in the first draft as a Supplementary Planning Document, but was put on hold in July 2013.