The Vale planning website has posted a brief letter from the Planning Inspectorate dated 29 Apr 15. The letter notifies the Vale that the West Way appeal filed by Doric has been withdrawn.

Doric demanded that Vale change some of the terms of the sale contracts, including the date by which they must have gained planning approval. In exchange, they would withdraw their appeal. The Vale Leader conceded.

So the misery goes on.

In 2011, one of the first things the new Tory cabinet did was decide to sell West Way and the nearby properties to Doric, in full knowledge that Doric wanted to demolish the whole centre of Botley. They did this despite getting advice from paid consultants that the project was full of risk and could well be the wrong thing to do.

One of the last things they will do in this administration is to change the terms of the sale contacts to give Doric another chance. This is NOT fair play for Botley. The community played the planning game by the rules, and we WON the refusal. We’ll never know if we also could have won the appeal, but we think so. That would have ended the current contract, and we would have been able to start again with something more suited to the needs of the local community. But the Vale’s Tory Leader decided to move the goalposts, change the contract (in ways we don’t know) and extend the dates, giving Doric another chance. Once again, we begin a Doric deal in secrecy without knowing the changes the Vale conceded.

And Tories are claiming credit for success in West Way in their campaign literature. I think this stinks.