This week I’ll be taking part in the inspector’s public examination of Local Plan Part 2. One of the main objectives of LPP2 is to provide policy for how Vale will meet its share of Oxford’s unmet need.

I oppose the plan for one basic reason: the evidence used to underpin LPP2 is out of date and known to be false. It’s arguable that Oxford HAS no needs it cannot meet for itself.

Government recently consulted on a new algorithm to define the number of houses an area needs, its Objectively Assessed Need (OAN). Using this new calculation Vale, and Oxford, have a much lower OAN than the old SHMA dictated. In fact, it’s likely that the new, lower OAN means Oxford can meet its own need without help from Vale.

Green Belt land and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are protected from development except in the case of “exceptional circumstances”. Once open spaces are turned into urban sprawl, they are gone forever. Oxfordshire’s extreme need for housing was used in 2016 as justification for large developments in Vale’s open spaces.

Now we know that Govt considers the old OANs for Oxfordshire to have been unnecessarily high. That means several things.

LPP1, which placed some strategic housing sites on Green Belt land, was based on evidence now known to be false. (As an aside, when these large SHMA figures were introduced, Vale councillors tried to scrutinise how such large figures were derived. We were told that information was proprietary and not available to study.) Liberal Democrats across the county argued that the SHMA produced figures that were unrealistically high, which would crowd the countryside with more housing than was needed. Turns out we were right.

So the too-high SHMA led to strategic sites in the Green Belt in my area in the LPP1 adopted in 2016. It’s probably too late to save them. There are better sites, but the Green Belt sites are already underway.

The new calculations cut significantly the OAN in Vale. That leads to the situation where Vale has inappropriately approved development in the Oxford Green Belt.

Oxford’s OAN is also greatly reduced, to the point where Vale doesn’t need to help. LPP1 would fully meet all Vale’s housing needs, and nothing further is needed in Vale for Oxford Housing.

But then there’s Dalton Barracks. It’s a military base in the Vale’s part of the Green Belt, soon to be closed. It is therefore available for many hundreds of homes, provided there are exceptional circumstances. Evidence does not support the claim for exceptional circumstances. But still, it is brownfield land, more suitable for new housing developments than the Green Belt sites already allocated in Sunningwell, Radley and Kennington.

What a mess.

In my opinion, a plan that makes permanent changes to the city, towns, villages and countryside cannot be considered sound when it is based on evidence known to be false.

I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues called for Vale to pause and reassess. Tories voted against that. They want to move forward with a reckless plan to take up limited open spaces with more houses, which will be too expensive for local people to rent or buy, and that aren’t really needed anyway, all based on evidence they know to be outdated and false.

Sound familiar?

So this week I’ll be participating in the Local Plan Examination in Public.