Autumn 2015 www.cpreoxon.org.uk voice

Plan for need, not greed Mapping Oxfordshire Oxfordshire’s footpaths Future of Oxfordshire should Celebrating 50 years of Here today, gone be in all our hands Alun Jones’ drawings tomorrow? OXFORDSHIRE Chairman’s voice

Voice When the over and over again how the system is Autumn 2015 first draft of working in practise and yet nothing is the National done to remedy the problems. There Features Planning appears to be cynical acceptance that 3 Port Meadow & Northern Framework anything goes - in the interests of Gateway latest (NPPF) was economic development. 4 Oxfordshire Local Plan replaced in round-up 2012 some of We have all seen the way in which us said ‘we thought we could work developers, abetted by the Planning 5 Survey reveals public want to with it’. While it still had an emphasis Inspectorate, have managed to take keep Green Belt on economic development it did advantage of the fact that districts 6 Plan for need, not greed say that there was a social role, and do not have agreed local plans to 8 Mapping Oxfordshire an environmental role as well as an meet the NPPF, and have been able economic emphasis. And it defined to push though major developments 9 Oxfordshire’s footpaths sustainable development using the in Oxfordshire villages, completely 10 Minerals Plan United Nations definition ‘meeting contrary to David Cameron’s promise 11 Transport update the needs of the present without that he was not going to foist estates compromising the ability of future of houses onto villages without the 12 Out and about with CPRE generations to meet their own needs’. agreement of the villagers. DIRECTORY Views expressed in the Voice are not necessarily We were encouraged by statements Districts are now being forced to put those of CPRE Oxfordshire, which welcomes from government ministers. David forward plans which accept the vastly independent comment. Cameron: “I love our countryside and overstated ‘objectively assessed Editor: Helena Whall would do nothing to put it at risk” need’ for housing as expressed in the Cover: Rosehips, West Lockinge. Photo: Helena Whall (Conservative Conference 2011). Four SHMA - the Strategic Housing Market Articles, letters, comments and suggestions for of our County MPs in a newspaper Assessment (see page 4). These figures articles are welcome. Please contact the Branch letter, dated September 2011, said: incorporate aggressive forecasts of Office below. Published November 2015 “These reforms will sweep away the future development by the Local District Chairmen imposition of housing numbers from Enterprise Partnership which have CPRE Oxfordshire Branch Whitehall. Housing numbers will been prepared in order to justify bids Brian Wood 01869 337904 become a matter for local councils to to the Government Growth Fund, and [email protected] Banbury: Chris Hone 01295 265379 determine in their local plans, and put European funds. Bicester: Vacant 01491 612079 power firmly back into the hands of [email protected] local people”. That these figures have been produced Henley & Mapledurham: Judith Crockett and accepted without any public 01491 612801. [email protected] : Sietske Boeles 01865 728153 It has not worked out that way at consultation is the basis of a campaign [email protected] all. And there is a curious ability we intend to develop (see page 6). The Thame & Bullingdon: Michael Tyce of ministers to continue to protest government argues that it is in favour 01844 339274 [email protected] Vale of White Horse: Peter Collins that local people have an input into of ‘localism’, but in practise it sets the St Edmund Hall, Oxford OX1 4AR planning decisions. rules and effectively takes decisions Wallingford: Richard Harding out of the hands of local people. 01491 836425 [email protected] In fact, if anything, the planning West Oxfordshire: Justine Garbutt (acting Chair) process is more centralised than it Brian Wood 01993 837681 [email protected] was. Ministers and MPs have been told Chairman, CPRE Oxfordshire Branch Office CPRE Oxfordshire, First Floor, 20 High Street, Watlington, Oxfordshire OX49 5PY All this for for (Registered office) just £3 a month! Stand up for your countryside T: 01491 612079 Membership of CPRE gives you: E: [email protected] Join CPRE l Oxfordshire is a beautiful l An active role in protecting Oxfordshire Campaign Briefing, www.cpreoxon.org.uk rural county with a glorious our countryside a monthly e-mail newsletter city at its heart. Help keep it detailing campaign updates Follow us on Twitter @CPREOxfordshire l Both local and national rural, tranquil and beautiful. l membership of CPRE Countryside Voice, the official You can join us in our work, CPRE national magazine, three and like us on make a donation or leave a l Access to local events and issues a year www.facebook.com/CPREOxfordshire legacy. meetings www.cpreoxon.org.uk l Half price admission to some of CPRE Oxfordshire is registered in England as T: 01491 612079 l Oxfordshire Bulletin, our bi-annual the finest houses and gardens E: [email protected] CPRE Oxfordshire magazine in England. Charity No.1093081 and Company No. 4443278.

2 CPRE Oxfordshire voice Autumn 2015 OxClean’s Spring Clean, 2016 Northern taken up the challenge and is leading Gateway

OxClean a national anti-litter campaign, Clean for the Queen (www.cleanforthequeen. update co.uk), particularly aimed at the Despite strenuous objections from countryside. CPRE, local residents and other campaign groups, a Planning The dates of the next OxClean Spring Inspector this summer accepted Clean are Friday 4 March – Sunday Oxford City Council’s proposals 6 March 2016. The Oxclean website for development in the Northern provides advice on how to organise Gateway area. This will include a litter pick and liaise with local 500 houses and 90,000m2 of authorities (www.oxclean.org.uk/). employment space around There may be some funding for litter the already hugely congested pickers and high viz. vests. Wolvercote roundabout / Peartree Since 2006 OxClean, a branch of interchange area of the City. As Oxford Civic Society, has organised an Please take part in this campaign to well as the landscape impact and annual Spring Clean in Oxford during clean up our beautiful countryside! loss of Green Belt land, concerns the first weekend in March. All Oxford centre on the likelihood of a universities and schools take part, with Rosanne Bostock growth in traffic and congestion. about 2,000 members of the public OxClean This would increase the area’s volunteering a couple of hours. existing air pollution problems CPRE is collaborating on a project and could threaten both human When OxClean started about ten tons with other organisations to tackle health and the biodiversity of of litter was collected, now it is down litter called Litter Action (www.litter- Port Meadow, a Special Area of to about 7 tons. OxClean’s nudge to action.org.uk). It will be delivered by Conservation (SAC). Wolvercote the primary and secondary schools a partnership of the public, private Action Group is gathering evidence and Oxford City Council has led to an and third sectors, including Govern- on this issue in advance of the ongoing improvement in standards. ment, academia and the media. For detailed planning application more information contact: Saman- which is expected to come forward Now Country Life magazine, in [email protected] early next year. conjunction with Keep Britain Tidy, has

Adrian Arbib Adrian Save Port Meadow Campaign In October last year, Oxford University took until September this year for the of one storey of the building, remains put forward its retrospective University to provide that additional the minimal solution in line with Environmental Statement of its detail. They continue to claim that the Environmental Impact Assessment accommodation blocks at Port harm is justified by the urgent need to (EIA) regulations. The decision now Meadow, and confirmed the provide student accommodation. With lies with the City Council’s West Area ‘substantial harm’ the development help from our incredible and tireless Planning Committee. However, they had caused. Oxford City Council supporters, the Save Port Meadow must act within the bounds of the EIA then requested further information, Campaign Group and CPRE have made regulations or potentially face further particularly in relation to the costs it clear that this is unacceptable and legal action. of the various mitigation options. It that Option 3, which includes removal

Join the debate. Join the campaign. Join CPRE 3 Oxfordshire Local Plan round-up

Cherwell South Oxfordshire consideration of matters concerning Cherwell’s new Local Plan (Part 1) The SHMA proposes 15,000 homes the AONB and Green Belt to Stage was adopted by Cherwell District for South Oxfordshire for the period Two, despite 14% of the number of Council in July. Essentially it endorses up to 2031; the current Core Strategy, homes in strategic sites proposed the Inspector’s insistence that the adopted only two years earlier, for these areas. Nevertheless, CPRE Strategic Housing Market Assessment proposed 11,487. and others were able to make strong (SHMA) should be followed exactly, and representations to the Inspector means that room has been found for Deciding to update its Plan in light against the inappropriateness of the no less than 22,840 new houses to be of the SHMA, SODC issued a public Vale’s proposal to build 1,400 homes built by 2031. Most of these have been consultation in June 2014 called in the North Wessex Downs AONB and allocated to Bicester, Banbury and Issues and Options, followed with 1,510 homes in the Green Belt. to the old air base at Upper Heyford. a Refined Options consultation in It is expected that Bicester will February 2015. The results of which In a Note circulated to all participants effectively double in size. How this will have not yet been published. in early October, the Inspector be achieved whilst retaining its much confirmed that he is happy to move to lauded aim of becoming a Garden City That consultation offered just three Stage Two of the hearings which will be remains unclear. In the meantime choices, all objectionable to CPRE, for held in the New Year. the Council is embarking upon Part 2, the bulk of the new houses proposed - which will attempt to fill in the detail two major developments in the Green West Oxfordshire of how the Plan will be implemented. Belt, at Grenoble Road and Wick Farm, The Examination in Public of the West or a revival of the egregious Stone Oxfordshire Draft Local Plan is due to The Plan envisages minimal incursions Bassett new town at Great Haseley, start in November. The Plan is based into the Green Belt for the moment, seen off in the 1990s. It also proposed on a housing target of 525 houses and does not include the enormous upping the allocation to larger and per annum, below the 660 per annum number of yet more houses Oxford City smaller villages. target set by the Oxfordshire SHMA. is requesting to meet its SHMA target. However, Cherwell has promised “on- In early October SODC published a The Inspector has raised several early going and constructive engagement study on its Green Belt; the study questions, to which the Council has with neighbouring authorities” under proposes removing 17 parcels of land responded. It is clear that he has areas its Duty to Cooperate, and it remains from the Green Belt, plus the ‘inset’ of of concern - not least that the target is to be seen whether the Green Belt, a further four sites. less than the recommendation in the especially around Kidlington, will stay SHMA. No doubt developers and land untouched. South Oxfordshire residents will be agents at the hearings will be arguing given an opportunity to comment strongly that West Oxfordshire’s target Oxford City on the Council’s preferred options for is too low and that some of Oxford Despite the fact that all other District where it can put its housing allocation, City’s unmet need should be factored Councils in Oxfordshire are reviewing including Green Belt sites, in the in to the Local Plan. their Local Plans in the light of the coming months. county-wide SHMA, Oxford City has After the first round of hearings a decided not to update its 2011 Core Vale of White Horse judgement will be made on the overall Strategy. The Vale Draft Local Plan had its first soundness of the Draft Plan, before hearings in September. The Inspector moving to the second round, which will The SHMA identified Oxford as needing made the decision to separate the deal with individual sites and specifics. between 24,000 – 32,000 new homes, examination of the Plan into two but the Council has said it can only stages; Stage One focused on the Whilst CPRE believe WODC’s proposed find space for 10,212 new dwellings. overall housing numbers proposed in housing figures are still too high, the Plan, and the strategic location we are supportive of the Council’s Oxford City is therefore expecting of sites; while Stage Two is due to questioning of the methodologies used neighbouring District Councils to examine the appropriateness of the in the SHMA, including the aggressive accommodate the remaining houses sites, taking into consideration social growth figures, and we are hopeful – its ‘unmet need’ (a shortfall of and environmental considerations. that the Inspector will be convinced by somewhere between 13,788 and WODC’s arguments. 21,788), under the Duty to Cooperate. The Inspector wanted to delay any

4 CPRE Oxfordshire voice Autumn 2015 include building in the Green Belt; the Survey reveals public want to South Oxfordshire Plan consultation which shows it as an acceptable option, and their “study” to find Green Belt keep Green Belt to sacrifice, and Oxford City’s well- publicised and long-standing aim to expand over Green Belt land. It is also evident in the fact that all the Councils are engaged in a strategic Oxfordshire- Keep Green Keep wide review of the Green Belt explicitly to find sites to build on, in pursuit of a growth plan which seeks to change rural Oxfordshire into an economic development zone (enshrined in the Strategic Economic Plan or SEP) – a plan on which no-one has been consulted.

Why are they doing this, especially without even consulting us on the Green Belt land in the parish of Cumnor, Vale, magnitude of what they intend? threatened with housing development

They say that if they do not build What is it that the vast majority of threat. Attitudes were essentially on the Green Belt they will not have people across Oxfordshire want to the same in Oxford and outside it; sufficient land for the next five years’ keep exactly as it is; Government amongst home owners and non-home housing “need”, and as a consequence repeatedly states should be owners; and amongst less well-off Government will take away their permanently protected; yet all the and better off respondents. It was an planning powers. Some may think that Local Councils in Oxfordshire are overwhelming show of support for the would not be a bad outcome…but in bent on dismantling? Yes, it is our . National Office did a fact the Government has specifically Green Belt. similar England-wide, but less detailed said that unmet housing need does not survey to mark the 60th anniversary of justify use of Green Belt land. In the Spring CPRE Oxfordshire decided Green Belt becoming national policy, to test public opinion with a major atti- with effectively the same result. It may be more to do with the fact that tude survey about the Green Belt across Government pays Councils for each the County. The survey was held in According to an Ipsos MORI poll, new house they build (in New Homes the face of the obvious threat from the 64% of people surveyed across Bonuses), and this money provides overblown Strategic Housing Market England agree the Green Belt funds for Councillors’ pet projects Assessment (SHMA) forecast of housing should be protected, while just for promises of industrialising the need – which required housebuilding 17% disagree. countryside. equivalent to two new cities the size of Oxford in the next sixteen years, largely The Government agrees with the The more houses, the more to meet the needs of families who public. Whilst strongly pushing the money… The sad truth is, it may would be attracted into the County by housebuilding agenda, it states that be as simple as that! the massive economic growth on which neither unmet housing need, nor the our Councils are set, but which we have lack of a supply of available building CPRE will argue the Green Belt’s corner not been consulted on. land, would justify inappropriate at every Local Plan review…but the only development on a site within the way to save it – which the vast majority 76% of Oxfordshire’s residents Green Belt. Which is planning speak for of the population want to do – is to believe the Green Belt should ‘hands off the Green Belt’. campaign against the vandalism of the remain open and undeveloped, unwanted and undemocratic growth with 66% seeing new housing In flagrant defiance of the clear views plan itself. development as the greatest of the public that elects them, and of threat. the Government’s expressed advice, all Michael Tyce of our Councils, without exception, are Chairman, CPRE Thame Three quarters of the public told set on going ahead with a large scale our researchers that the Green Belt carve-up of the Green Belt anyway. should remain open and undeveloped, Take Action whatever the pressure to build more This is apparent from Cherwell District See our Growth Strategy houses. Indeed, housebuilding was Council’s adopted Local Plan and Campaign on page 6. seen as far and away the greatest the Vale’s proposed Plan, which both

Join the debate. Join the campaign. Join CPRE 5 Plan for need, not greed genuinely affordable, not just 80% of an astronomical market rate. The John Rounce current model of relying on developers to provide this simply isn’t working.

We need to keep our rural communities alive and vibrant – yet in recent months we have seen subsidised buses slashed, another round of post office closures, village primary schools stretched to capacity and news that the County Council will not undertake rural traffic assessments as it cannot afford to implement any improvements!

Our landscape and environment are also suffering, with relaxation of the Ancient Great Coxwell in the Vale is threatened with massive planning rules leading to inappropriate development which will lead to near coalescence with Faringdon. rural development, increased traffic and congestion generating more air A campaign against county by 2031, equivalent to two pollution and natural resources, such Oxfordshire’s Forced new cities the size of Oxford in just as water and energy, being put under Economic Growth Strategy 17 years! This could lead to roughly increasing pressure. CPRE Oxfordshire is working with 200,000 more people, a 30% increase a range of campaign groups and in our population – much higher than The Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) individuals to press for environmental the anticipated UK population growth largely ignores these problems, and social concerns to be put at the for the same period of 10%. It would but by vastly increasing the level heart of decision-making for the also mean building at virtually double of development and the number of county. Will you add your voice? any previous rate, which we all know is people living in the county, it will unlikely to be achieved. Meanwhile, we actually make the situation worse, not What’s the future for will be sacrificing greenfield land (even better. Oxfordshire? Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding At the moment the answer to that Natural Beauty) to meet these top- Cash-starved Councils can’t question is being entirely dominated down targets. see the wood for the trees by a single issue business interest Our local Councils, starved of income – the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Put simply, the forced Growth from central Government, have fallen Partnership (OxLEP), whose remit is to Strategy is the biggest threat to rural into line in a desperate bid to seize boost economic growth in the county. Oxfordshire in our history and its the twin bribes of money from the impact would be irreversible. New Homes Bonus (an average of That’s fine, but it’s only one factor £4,000 for every new house built) and in sustainable development. Where The real problems – a few infrastructure handouts. The are the environmental and social affordable housing, rural Oxfordshire Growth Board, on which considerations taken into account? services and pressures on our Council leaders all sit, currently the environment exists purely to try to deliver the plans Growth at all costs? What the plan doesn’t address is dreamt up by the Local Enterprise This focus on the economy has led to some of the very genuine social and Partnership. a county plan that envisages creating environmental problems our county 85,000 new jobs in Oxfordshire by faces. Oxfordshire is the most rural Lack of democracy 2031. Who could object to that? Except county in the South-East – nearly half OxLEP is a private company, not an of course we are fortunate to have of us live in towns or villages of less elected body, and its meetings are nearly full employment in the County, than 10,000 people. So where are the not open to the public. Our Council so exactly what problem is OxLEP top-level strategies to reflect this? leaders do sit on its board, but are trying to solve? outnumbered by business interests. We desperately need more The public consultation on its current The knock-on effects of this plan are affordable housing, especially in Strategic Economic Plan was cancelled a proposed 100,000 houses in the rural communities. And we mean due to ‘lack of time’.

6 CPRE Oxfordshire voice Autumn 2015 The Oxfordshire Growth Board, which So, what can we do? 2 Tell our elected representatives that is supposed to give public oversight CPRE Oxfordshire is joining forces we need to plan for need, not greed. to these issues, has only formally met with a number of other local The future of Oxfordshire shouldn’t twice this year. The last meeting lasted campaign groups and individuals just be ‘business as usual’. How will a total of 16 minutes. (Anyone get to end this dash for growth at all they ensure that environmental the feeling decisions are being made costs, and to demand that social and and social concerns are taken into behind the scenes?!) So far, they don’t environmental concerns are placed at account at the strategic level? It’s even have a policy on how the public the heart of decision-making for the time we all had a say. can participate in these meetings county. There are five simple things 3 Stay in touch – Email Helena Whall, although, following questions from we can all do: Campaign Manager: PRO@cpreoxon. CPRE, they do now say they will org.uk or call the Branch office: Tel: introduce one. 1 Respond to the public consultation 01491 612079. on the Oxfordshire Strategic There is another small light at the end Economic Plan (SEP) – the Plan 4 Sign up to our monthly of the tunnel. This autumn OxLEP is is due for review this autumn (at E-Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1VDxbZy due to review and update its economic the time of going to print we don’t 5 Donate to CPRE Oxfordshire: http:// plan and, as a result of sustained know exactly when, or what form bit.ly/1LAiJg7 pressure from CPRE and others, the public consultation will take, this time it has promised a public so please keep an eye on the CPRE The future of Oxfordshire – it should consultation. website or emails). be in all our hands. Angus Dart Harvest challenges Trialling on the farm. The harvesting of our winter-sown crops blades and the grass pick-up header of wheat and beans became a rather swapped to a six row maize header. The protracted affair at the start of October crop storage bunker (clamp), decked out as we lost many weekdays to rain and with plastic sheeting, was hung against showers. However, a miraculously sunny the 2.5 metre high walls and the tractors weekend allowed us to have an action- and trailers were made ready. We have a packed few days. That said, yields of all relatively small outfit at the farm, but we crops were very pleasing and somewhat are moving 100 – 120 tonnes of material above our expectations. This seems per hour from field to clamp, where my to have been a general trend, which job is to push up and consolidate the combined with the strength of sterling, incoming finely chopped material. It has depressed prices. didn’t take us long to get way above the walls ramping the sides towards the The regular showers this autumn have middle, like the roof on a house. had a positive effect on grass growth, allowing us to take more silage cuts than This year we are determined to beat the normal. We recently completed our fourth damage caused in the winter by rooks round of grass silage harvesting. pecking through our protective net covers and the underlying plastic sheets There has been much news reporting of to reach the stored crop. Their activity the change in leadership of the Labour allows the ingress of air, where we have Party. The new shadow secretary for taken considerable effort to create an Defra is Kerry McCarthy – a lady of strong anaerobic environment for the crop to further quality analysis. The weigh trailer vegan views and opinions. This has pickle, causing moulds and waste to the then decants each plot into a grain trailer caused some excitement in the livestock top surface of the finished clamp, none (taller silage sided trailers can be seen sector! I am sure once everyone has of which our dairy cows wish to eat! After behind the tractor in the image above). calmed down it will prove to be a positive some research we are trialling some This forms part of a national series of learning experience for all. new “peck proof” covers imported from trials that generate valuable information Germany to see if we can win the battle. for growers on the performance of Anyway back at the coalface, the sunny varieties across a range of growing days have allowed us to start the maize Trialling also occurs in the field. The conditions. harvesting. The Forage Harvester has picture shows us harvesting variety trial been converted from grass to maize mode plots for a plant breeder into their special Angus Dart – meaning a change of cutting cylinder weigh trailer. These are also sampled for CPRE Farming Consultant

Join the debate. Join the campaign. Join CPRE 7 Celebrating 50 years of Michael Tyce Alun Jones’ drawings

Readers of the Oxfordshire Voice will We are now looking for a long-term be familiar with the beautiful hand- home for this incredible archive. drawn maps that appear on the back page of every spring issue of the For further information please magazine advertising CPRE’s AGM. contact CPRE: But what many of you will not know is [email protected] that these are produced by Alun Jones Alun Jones, CPRE’s very own Cartogropher, who has drawn some 90 maps of Oxfordshire, over the past 50 years, mostly on behalf of CPRE.

An exhibition celebrating Alun Jones’ work was held in September, in the Old Library Corridor, at Lincoln College, Oxford (the College Alun attended). The exhibition included some of Alun’s maps of Oxfordshire towns and villages, historical houses and their gardens, and routes of long-distance walks and sponsored walks (see his drawing of the Oxford Green Belt Way featured on this page). Together they provide a fascinating overview and valuable record of Oxfordshire’s communities and landscapes.

We are hoping the exhibi- tion of Alun’s drawings will next move on to County Hall, Oxford, with a formal opening involving the Chairman of Oxfordshire County Council.

CPRE Oxfordshire has been honoured to be the beneficiary of so much of Alun’s work over the years and is delighted that these exhibitions will help bring it to the attention of the wider public.

8 CPRE Oxfordshire voice Autumn 2015 Oxfordshire’s footpaths: Helena Whall here today, gone tomorrow?

Sensing the approach of Most public rights of way exist simply autumn more and more on the basis of historical precedent every day and seeing the and the evidence for a right of way can be challenged at any time, resulting colours of the countryside in a legal process to decide the matter. changing, perhaps a few of Rarely, a right of way is closed, but us will be spurred to walk a more often a right of way is diverted footpath or two before winter on grounds of privacy of the landowner sets in, or even to walk all of or to permit a housing development Gordon Garraway the fifty miles of the Oxford which can result in a footpath being Green Belt Way created by made longer to walk or the loss of a Wanted: Volunteers to much loved view. the Branch in 2007. walk the OGBW! Gordon Garraway would like to know of There are also those other walks any member who enjoys walking who No doubt we all have a favourite which carry no official signs which would be willing to help with monitoring footpath which we walk whenever we nevertheless are much loved walks the Oxford Green Belt Way. The walk is can and has existed for as long as we and lead out from a back garden, separated into nine stages; each stage can remember, guided by the County if fortunate, or from a village or is adopted by a volunteer to monitor Council’s green metal roadside signs collection of houses into the quiet once a year to ensure that it is easy and and the coloured waymark discs. of the open countryside. These are enjoyable to walk. There are no onerous perhaps the most vulnerable to tasks, but training will be provided and Because of this it is easy to think that being lost, particularly at the present you will be given a copy of the OGBW our favourite footpath is permanent, time where Local Plans carry many guide book. since all of the 2,600 miles of rights of proposed new sites for housing and The nine stages are as follows: way in Oxfordshire maintained by the where such paths (and also rights Stage 1 Thornhill to Nuneham County Council are recorded on their of way) exist. However, anyone can Courtenay (7.5 miles) definitive map (www.oxfordshire.gov. make a claim (to the County Council’s Stage 2 to uk/definitivemap). Definitive Map and Commons Team) Abingdon Lock (5.6 miles) for such a walk to be added to the Stage 3 Abingdon Lock to We have to thank the 1949 Country- definitive map, providing enough (4.3 miles) side Act for such a record, since under evidence can be presented from users Stage 4 Radley to Cumnor (7.3 miles) the Act the County Council had a who can show that they have walked Stage 5 Cumnor to Swinford Bridge duty to map all the rights of way in the paths for, usually, as many as (4.8 miles) Oxfordshire. Despite much support by twenty years, or from Enclosure Maps Stage 6 Swinford Bridge to Wolvercote Council members for rights of way, and Parish Records. (3.9 miles) the budget for their management has Stage 7 Wolvercote to Hampton Poyle been has been repeatedly cut leading Hopefully, where such threats exist, (6.2 miles) to some footpaths being closed where, the developer will take a community Stage 8 Hampton Poyle to Beckley for example, the cost of repairing the minded view and work with local (8.2 miles) bridges concerned couldn’t be funded. interest groups to site the houses to avoid such paths or where this is Stage 9 Beckley to Thornhill (4.3 miles) For 2013/14, the maintenance budget not possible, to design user friendly If you are interested or would like more averaged £30 per mile. In comparable diversions leading to schools and other information about the Oxford Green Belt counties this figure is as high as £92 facilities. To the developer’s credit this Way, please contact Gordon on: 01235 522958 or [email protected]. per mile. This means that if the County was the case for the Great Western Council is to maintain the standard Park housing development at Didcot. To obtain a copy of the Oxford Green of rights of way at the present level, Belt Way guide book see the CPRE website: http://bit.ly/1j39tov or contact other sources of funding will need to Let us hope this view will prevail with the Branch Office. be sought and even greater use made other developers in the county. of volunteers from the Ramblers and For an online, zoomable mapped route of the Oxford Green Belt Way see the others, including under the Parish Path Gordon Garraway Ordnance Survey: http://bit.ly/1PPYngE Warden Scheme. CPRE Rights of Way Consultant

Join the debate. Join the campaign. Join CPRE 9 Smith & Sons (Bletchington) Ltd. See CPRE’s response to the consultation at: http://bit.ly/1KOiVmc

and gravel. For this material, massaging of figures by consultants gives a figure of 1.015 million tonnes per annum (mtpa): this would imply the provision of at least one new quarry within the plan period.

But application of the 10-year rolling average proposed in the National Planning Policy Framework yields a figure of 0.715 million tonnes per annum. This would mean a total requirement over the period of the plan lower than current reserves. Rather than adopt this figure, the plan accepts a figure 42% greater.These figures may County Council Core be compared with 2013’s output of 0.4mtpa.

Strategy for minerals Acceptance of the County’s method of Gill Mill Quarry, Ducklington, Witney. calculating the LAA implies a radical departure from the NPPF, we therefore consider the plan to be unsound. This strategy as its title group led by CPRE and involving seven indicates is the central parties concerned with working of sharp 3 Lack of policy direction on document in a plan for future sand and gravel, and soft sand. It was selection of sites for new quarries therefore surprising in November 2014 minerals working for the Official planning guidance on minerals to learn that the Council’s Cabinet, and plans favours the designation of specific county. It sets the scene for in due course Council, were to discuss a sites. The plan does not do this but planning proposals. CPRE has new Local Aggregates Assessment (LAA) promises a Part 2 on site selection some just submitted our objections report with no preliminary consultation years ahead. It therefore spreads a to this document. with the local community group. This planning blight over much of the valleys group had by this time morphed into of the Thames and its tributaries for There has been a long series of attempts OXAGE (Oxfordshire Against Gravel some time. by the Council to draft, consult on Extraction) which aimed to concentrate and put before a planning inspector a on the LAA for sharp sand and gravel The core strategy ducks the business of strategy to replace the last plan of 1996. extraction. naming sites – if such are indeed needed CPRE has been invited to comment on – and instead sets out large ‘strategic the various drafts of such plans since The Council’s neglect of its duty to resources areas’. These must create for 2006. Over the years as successive consult OXAGE before publishing its residents in those areas the fear that drafts came and went, readers of the draft is a disappointing, not to say a they may suffer all the worries that Oxfordshire Voice will have noted the disillusioning, fact. We believe this attend uncertainties of where the next hope we nursed that at last we were on means that this aspect of the plan is not quarry will be. the verge of seeing a bright new plan. legally compliant.

But the hope dwindled and died; one We strongly deplore this evasion of trusts that the latest plan for the period 2 Massaging of figures in calculating responsibility which renders the plan to 2031 will not be just another forlorn the Local Aggregates Assessment unsound. attempt. (or lies, damned lies and

consultants) The inspector deputed to hear views on We have three main objections to the A Local Aggregates Assessment is an this unsatisfactory plan early next year latest plan. annual assessment of the demand has a tough but simple decision on his and supply of aggregates in a mineral or her hands: it is to tell the Council to go 1 Failure to comply with the planning authority’s area. Instead of a back, prune heavily and admit that no Oxfordshire Statement of comprehensive review of the alternative new quarries will be needed in the years Community Involvement sources of aggregates, the reader is led to 2031. On previous occasions in the process of to consider that the long-term requires a developing the core strategy, the County major increase in the supply of land-won Arnold Grayson Council consulted an environmental material, especially that of sharp sand CPRE Minerals Consultant

10 CPRE Oxfordshire voice Autumn 2015 See CPRE’s response to the Oxfordshire Transport update consultation on LTP4:

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Keep an eye on CPRE’s website for our response to the consultation on proposed improvements to A40.

environment receive little attention. For example, it has taken a national survey to identify the A361 between Chipping Norton and Banbury as one of the ten most dangerous single carriageway roads in England. This has long been a matter of local concern and at last the County Council has agreed to look at the Local Transport Plan economic development and commuting problems there. into Oxford. Consultation is promised The Oxfordshire Local Transport Plan on mostly modest short-term measures Rail (LTP4) has recently been narrowly barely adequate for a plan that should be approved by the County Council with looking at least as far forward as 2031. The County’s rail policy will not be only minor changes following strong published until next year indicating a representation from CPRE and other local lack of joined up thinking. The first stage ‘Expressway’ between Oxford campaign groups. of East West Rail as far as Bicester is and M1 now due to be open, with the new fast It is an extensive document The Government has announced a service to London Marylebone from summarising existing data, studies and programme of progressively improving Oxford Parkway. The Great Western plans, but proposes few solutions to the most important long distance routes electrification developments are existing problems or those that lie ahead. to ‘expressways’, a new safe class of road progressing rapidly but are now causing just below motorway standards on which some local concerns particularly relating The most notable decisions are in vital road traffic can travel safely largely to visual intrusion. Instances are the principle to assist growth at Oxford by free of delays. As part of the stimulus to very robust new design of Overhead heavy reliance on buses and eventually the economy of the sub-region between Line Equipment (OLE), raising the track grandiose investment in, for instance, Oxford and Cambridge, a study has at Oxford to alleviate flooding and a bus tunnel under The High and a new been commissioned for an expressway replacement of an uncontrolled crossing bus road in Headington. Proposed use of between Oxford and the M1 near Milton with a footbridge in North Oxford. The available land in the city for employment Keynes. This ‘expressway’ may involve new London service cannot be extended growth, with under provision of housing, a link from A34-M40, running through to Oxford central station until agreement will require yet more commuting Green Belt south of Oxford. can be reached on additional platform from surrounding districts to be capacity. This is also frustrating provision accommodated at new Park and Ride Responsibility for identifying problem of a new route to Cowley. These public sites in the Oxford Green Belt, a policy spots requiring improvement, has transport developments are vital to strongly opposed by CPRE and others. passed to the unelected Local Enterprise contain pressures for road travel through We have long advocated locating P&Rs Partnership (LEP) as part of their rural areas. close to the origin of journeys in the Strategic Economic Plan being funded by county towns rather than add to peak central Government. The County Council Air period congestion on radial rural roads. as Highway and Traffic Authority for all Further studies are promised but there is other roads has limited influence. Air traffic is largely outside the little sign of flexibility. influence of the local authority but it A420 is particularly worrying to see a policy The needs of the main towns are adopted in LTP4 to support growth in rehearsed, but it appears that very The A420 is another problematic corridor air traffic at Kidlington ‘Oxford London little funding is likely to be devoted particularly as the County Council now Airport’. Short haul air traffic is the to relieving existing problems with recognises the significance of major least environmentally sustainable the focus on seeking funding from development proposals at Swindon. mode of travel and should be seen as developers as new pressures on the Restraint policies are again being a last resort after development of good transport networks arise. contemplated with reliance on funding rail connections to major airports and by others. between cities. CPRE remains opposed to Congestion on inadequate roads causing any further increases in airport capacity diversion to even less adequate rural A361 in the South East. roads is not well addressed. However, the A40 corridor is identified as a Rural transport problems and the James Fletcher major problem likely to constrain both impact of through transport on the rural CPRE Transport consultant

Join the debate. Join the campaign. Join CPRE 11 Out and about with CPRE – 2015 Phil Crockett Becky Crockett

Local MP Victoria Prentis at CPRE Banbury stall on Canal Day. John Broad

CPRE members enjoying a walk On a pleasant May morning, ten along the Thames Path from CPRE members and friends, plus our Wallingford to Goring. two greyhounds, met on Wallingford Bridge to start a walk along the Thames Path to Goring. It was easy schemes, development in the Green going through meadows and past an Belt and the damage that would be interesting variety of riverside houses. caused to the countryside by the Architecture ranged from traditional unrestrained drive for economic growth small properties and boathouses to in Oxfordshire. the grand and sometimes bizarre. As Members of CPRE enjoyed a tour we approached Cholsey we could not In September, on another beautiful of Cogges Farm, the beautifully see the Fairmile housing development day, twenty members and friends restored Victorian farm in Witney at close quarters but from a distance visited Ewelme. We went round the thanks to John Harwood, President it seemed to settle well into the historic church and almshouses, then of CPRE Oxfordshire and Trustee of landscape. At Moulsford the Thames past the school. Both the almshouses Cogges Farm. Path passes under the magnificent and school were founded by Alice GWR railway bridge which was de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk and venture and we were delighted to certainly looking its age, but after granddaughter of Geffrey Chaucer, support the shop by ordering our years of neglect extensive restoration in 1437. The foundations are still lunches there. After lunch a few of us work is now in progress. functioning and the school is reputed walked from the village and on to the to be the oldest primary school in downs. We saw a variety of farming Once we arrived at Goring we had time England. We continued on to the activities from arable cultivation, to get lunch at a café conveniently watercress beds which were in use pig rearing and sheep grazing to situated opposite the bus stop. The from the 1890s to 1988. They were equestrian activities, glamping and bus back to Wallingford arrived on restored in the 1990s and are now other leisure facilities. The working time and thankfully the driver allowed looked after by the Chiltern Society. countryside is not always chocolate- our hounds to accompany us on the box pretty, but around Ewelme it is journey, which took considerably less The whole village is idyllic but certainly generally in good heart. time than our walk. We had all enjoyed not preserved in aspic. It is a vibrant the walk and there was much talk community and the residents have Judith Crockett along the way about threats to village even managed to keep their village Chairman, CPRE Henley communities from large housing shop, running it as a community & Mapledurham

Oxfordshire Voice Branch Office CPRE Online Published biannually by the Oxfordshire Branch CPRE Oxfordshire, First Floor, 20 High Street, Oxfordshire: www.cpreoxon.org.uk of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Watlington, Oxon OX49 5PY Twitter: @CPREOxfordshire Design: Rob Bowker T: 01491 825609 (Registered office) www.facebook.com/CPREOxfordshire Print: Severnprint Ltd with vegetable inks T: 01491 612079 on recycled paper using renewable energy. E: [email protected] National: www.cpre.org.uk