When you object to any planning application, it’s not enough to say, ‘We don’t want this disgusting development!’
Proper objections use material planning considerations.
To see an explanation of what is a ‘material planning consideration’, check out the Vale website page here.
You can see a list of what’s considered a material consideration, and some examples of what is NOT a material consideration (eg, loss of view, loss of property values).
A question was put to the Vale planners: “Can we hold the eventual meeting of the planning committee that will decide about this apllication in Botley so local people can more easily attend?”
Stuart Walker said that the request is noted, but it’s too soon now to determine that. That committee meeting is months away. Once the date is clearer, planning officers will seek to find a venue large enough to hold the expected number of attendees.
In today’s meeting with planning officers, I posed the question that’s been on everyone’s mind for awhile now, is West Way a Local Service Centre, as is claimed in all the Local Plan docs? Or is it a ‘District Centre’ as is broadcast in all the Doric docs?
Stuart Walker said, ‘In planning terms, there is no difference between a Local Centre and a District Centre. It’s just terminology that means nothing.’
Esssentially, they are both ways of describing a town-center-type retail or mixed use area.
In their application, Doric list the address of the development as ‘Botley District Centre West Way Botley’. This will be changed to (I think Stuart said), West Way Centre. Stuart thought it had already been changed, but it hasn’t yet. Let’s keep an eye on it.
To my mind, calling it a District Centre was unnecessary to the success of the panning application approval process, and has served to divert local people’s attention from more material concerns.
Let’s trust the planning officer when he says that what Doric call it makes no difference to what it is.
Let’s also continue to encourage Doric and the Vale to encourage proper naming so as not to mislead people.
As I posted yesterday, The Vale has decided that an Environmental Statement is required from Doric as part of their planning application. Doric have three weeks from the decision date, so until the 5th of March, to either agree to provide it, or lodge an appeal with the secretary of state. If they do nothing, the planning application will be refused.
During these three weeks, consultation on the overall application proceeds. So keep studying it, and keep lodging your material objections.
The Environmental Statement could take weeks or months to produce — it rather depends on how much of that work Doric had already done. If they did much of the work last year, it may take only weeks to provide the formal statement. If not, well, it could be months. We should know more once Doric decide what they’re going to do.
If the environmental statement and its assessment reveal changes that must be made to the application, there will be amendments and a re-consultation.
Any questions? Contact me or leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer it.
Oxfordshire County Council, in their opinion on whether Doric should be required to submit an Environmental Statement, had this to say about the way Doric change the nature of West Way to suit their needs. They saw what we’ve been noticing for months. (Click on the text to make it bigger and easy to read):
You can read all the opinions sent in under consultee replies, and the decision (as soon as it’s posted), on the Vale website, here.
(By the way, I was just notified that the decision is that an ES is required. Applicants have three weeks to appeal.)
The agenda for the Vale full council meeting on 19 Feb has been published. Click here to see it on the Vale website.
Mostly this meeting has to do with the budget for 2014-15. But there is some other business too.
I’ve tabled a motion intended to get the Cabinet to produce the legally required Action Plan for improving the air quaility in Botley. We have been a defined Air Quailty Management Area for many years now, and there is still not action plan, despite several assessments saying one is required. (To read more about AQMA in Botley, check out the Vale website, here. As I see this page today, the most recent doc there is from 2009. If you Google Botley Air Quailty Assessment, you can find the 2012 assessment — see it via this link. )
You may recall I’ve asked a formal question about this twice, once in July and again in October. Each time the Cabinet Member for Environmental Health promised action and didn’t deliver. So, I’ve upped the stakes.
Guest posting by Cllr Dudley Hoddinott of Appleton and Cumnor ward
This week, the Vale District Council awarded £3,870 to the project to build a community cycle and pedestrian path along the Eynsham Road from Swinford Toll Bridge to Dean Court, Oxford.
This money will help to fund a feasibility study containing outline design and draft proposals, as well as alternative options to deal with any constraints.
I was pleased to give a supporting statement at the Vale committee meeting to help secure the funding.
This grant comes from the New Homes Bonus community funding, money given to communities based on the number of new homes built in the area in the last 12 months.
We were thrilled to get this grant from the Vale, which moves the vision of a community path closer to reality.
The photo above includes the applicant, Ian Leggett, Chairman of Bike Safe (second from left) and me (third from left in front) with several supporters from Farmoor.
In respose to residents’ questions about lorries tracking their mud (big MUD) into the roads, we’ve had this information from Martin Deans, planning officer at the Vale.
This is an excerpt.
[Developers also made the] decision not to install a wheel wash at this stage but to opt for the more expensive option of intensive washing of the road surface every day. The site manager is concerned that, were a wheel-wash located near to the site entrance, as it would need to be in order for it to be effective, the effect of the poor weather would be a significant risk of a large volume of liquidised mud and other debris flowing from the site into Lime Road and then running downhill along Laburnum Road, causing more widespread problems that will be much more difficult to combat. Mud is being deposited onto the road by vehicles leaving the site, however, the road is being swept regularly every day to clean as much of the deposit as possible, and then intensively washed to remove any remaining deposit to leave the road in a clean state.
I’m glad to know some of the thinking behind decisions. All we were able to see was that there was no wheel washing going on. Now that I know why, it makes sense.
Doric’s plans have just gone up on the Vale website.
Consultation begins Monday the 3rd of Feb, and lasts for 6 weeks.
You can see the plans here.
Today, this situation on Lime Road surprised me so much that I had to park and take some photos.
This was just before 10am Thursday the 30th, and that is my car. No others, except waaaay down past the Woodbank site.
Laburnum Road was also empty for quite a ways down. I’ve texted the site manager to thank them all. (I don’t want them to think I only notice bad stuff.)
Some shots of the builders’ on site parking, seen through the trees next to the bridle trail. No cars parked on the bridle trail either.
(If you click on a photo you can see it in a bigger format. At least, that works for me.)