Our last newsletter asked you to write to our County Councillors in the lead up to the vote on the Structure Plan, to lobby them on protecting the green belt. Thank you to everyone who wrote, and to those of you who signed our petition. This newsletter is to bring you up to date and ask you to take action again.

THE STORY SO FAR

In April, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) met to vote on the Structure Plan amendments proposed by the Officers (following the first consultation period). The amendments were passed, with the result that the proposal to build 1000 houses on green belt land at Grenoble Road in Oxford, was removed from the draft structure plan. It is clear that councillors had faced massive lobbying from the public, and this was a crucial factor in the vote, albeit the majority was not as large as we would have hoped. At that meeting, prior to the vote, SPADE was one of a number of organisations who addressed the full council [full statement available here], and we presented an 1100 signature petition, calling for councillors to protect the Green Belt. For more information on the campaign so far, see the links on the left of this page.

WHAT NEXT?

The Structure Plan is redrafted to take account of the amendments, and the amendments are subject to a six week consultation period. During that time, anyone who has already expressed their views on the previous draft to the OCC will be contacted and invited to make further comment on the amend-ments. After the consultation period, a report is drawn up by the officers, and that is sent to the Inspector who will be running the Examination in Public (now expected to be held in October). The inspector will take account of local public feeling so this is why it is essential to have a resounding response.

Many of you will already have received a letter enclosing a response form from the OCC asking for your comments. We would ask you again to complete a response form, this time supporting the changes to the plan. SPADE has (as last time) produced a pre-completed response form for anyone who would like some help with wording, and we are delivering you a copy of that form with this newsletter. Once again, the volume of the response we generate is critical. You may think that the Penbridge/Green belt issue has gone away because it’s been removed from the draft. However, as you will have seen from the local papers, there are very powerful, wealthy forces lined up who will be exerting every influence they can to get the green belt development proposals back into the plan. We are working closely with other interested groups such as the Green Belt Network and Oxford Preservation Trust, to ensure the bigger players’ moves are met with a huge rebuttal from local people. The vote to accept the amendments only went through 30 to 25 so although the odds now seem better, the outcome is not assured: there is considerable pressure on councillors (from MP’s, local business, and not least Magdalen College and Thames Water) to allow the development of Grenoble Road and the Science Park which again is in Green Belt. We have seen that the Grenoble Road proposal led to a ‘domino’ effect of speculative proposals being launched, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that more players may still emerge this time around (although presumably they won’t be trumpeting their plans in the Oxford Times from the bridges over the A34!). For your information, the Wilcox/Penbridge representative who spoke at the OCC meeting (and who failed to identify himself) in favour of building on the green belt confirmed their plan could facilitate 5000 houses. So much for the 2000 Mr Wilcox promoted at the first village meeting in November 2003! You probably also saw the piece in the Oxford Times in which it was reported that local businessman Alan Lester promoted the idea that Abingdon should be taken over by Oxford and that Green Belt land between Oxford and Abingdon could be used to boost the economy. It said ‘…land surrounding areas like Kennington, Radley and Sunningwell should be made available for new housing and new businesses, as part of a bid to ensure the economic growth of the city…’.

CLEARLY THE THREAT HAS NOT GONE AWAY

So…it is vital that as many of us as possible join in the consultation this time around. It doesn’t matter if you did or if you didn’t complete a response last time – we need you and all the other members of your household to do one now. Additional copies of the completed response form may be photocopied or obtained from the SPADE committee or our distribution team, so please ask for as many as you need.

ACT NOW – WRITE TODAY –
WE ONLY HAVE UNTIL 5th JUNE

We’d be delighted if you use our pre-completed form, but if you would like to complete a response form in your own words we’d suggest you might like to…

• Endorse your support for the deletion of the proposal to build on Green Belt land at Grenoble Road
• Applaud their recognition that no exceptional circumstances had been shown which could jus-tify the incursion into the Green Belt
• Thank them for their continued support for the concept of the Green Belt as a means of defending our countryside from encroachment, preventing urban sprawl and the coalescence of set-tlements, and protecting the special character and landscape setting of Oxford
• Ask them to ensure that no further proposals to develop the Green Belt will be considered without the rigorous examination of all other options and the positive identification of excep-tional circumstances mandated by Government Planning Policy Guidance note 2 (PPG2)
• Confirm you are not seeking any amendments to the proposed changes
• Confirm you wish to be represented by SPADE
• Remind them that they should take account only of properly deposited responses, rather than being swayed by the non-democratic use of the media by other commercially interested parties

Please contact us if you have any queries, or if you need any help, or more forms. Once again, we would like to deliver as many as possible in one ‘SPADE’ delivery to the OCC so we will be knocking on as many doors as our small team can manage over the next few weeks to collect signed forms. If you don’t receive a visit by the end of May, we’d be grateful if you would get them back to us at 6 Beaulieu Court, Sunningwell, OX13 6RQ by not later than 5th June. If you are reading this in Wootton, Radley or Kennington and would like to volunteer to collect or distribute for us, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please contact us

Remember, we’re in the numbers game, so you can complete a separate form for every member of your household

WHAT ELSE?

SPADE will be working to ensure our seat at the table for the discussions at the Examination in Public, and will be taking professional advice on how best we can achieve that. We will continue to keep you informed of further developments.