Last week Cherwell District Council received confirmation from the Planning Inspectorate that their Local Plan Review, with a number of Main Modifications, appropriately delivers on its commitment to help address a shortfall in housing delivery in Oxfordshire.

The Plan proposes the release of Green Belt land north of Oxford to deliver an additional 4,400 homes in the south of the District.  Releasing Green Belt land, particularly open, green land, is difficult to justify – it can only be achieved in exceptional circumstances – and Oxfordshire is a historic place filled with nature and distinctive characteristics that must be conserved.  We worked closely with Cherwell District Council and its neighbours to ensure they planned a sustainable pattern of development and assessed its impact on the overall integrity of the Oxford Green Belt.

Our work in Oxfordshire began in 2015 with Oxfordshire County and the five Districts assessing the contribution of the County’s Green Belt to the purposes of the designation. We then assessed a number of potential large sites for accommodating homes across the county, considering a broad range of environmental, social, economic, viability and deliverability issues. The results of both studies informed the apportionment of the County’s unmet housing needs between the five Districts, with Cherwell District receiving a recommended apportionment of 4,400 homes.

Cherwell District Council then began exploring locations for accommodating this growth through an early Local Plan Review. LUC assessed nine broad areas of search and 42 site options in the early stages of the Sustainability Appraisal of the Local Plan Review. This led to the need to consider the harm of releasing Green Belt land on the integrity of the designation. Together, our Sustainability Appraisal and Green Belt Study formed an integral part of the District’s case for releasing Green Belt land in close proximity to Oxford.

This work has now been given the final seal of approval by the Planning Inspectorate.  Cherwell and its neighbours are to be congratulated for their commitment to the ‘duty to cooperate’ at a time of such uncertainty and change. It is important that we recognise such achievements, so that we can learn from them and apply their lessons in other parts of the country with similar challenges.

However our work is not finished. Oxfordshire’s character, countryside and communities must be protected and enhanced too – to ensure we are resilient to climate change, for nature, for health and well-being and the beneficial use of the Green Belt. We continue to work with  the Oxfordshire authorities on a strategic spatial plan for Oxfordshire up to 2050.

Over the past 10 years, LUC has seen demand for expertise and experience in this area rise significantly. We have completed Green Belt studies for over 45 local authorities across the country in recent years, covering over a quarter of England’s Green Belt land, and with several studies currently on the go we do not see this changing anytime soon.

The challenges we face as planners are only growing as the effects of climate change, the economic downturn and Covid-19 continue to bite. Sustainable development and the means of achieving it have never been more important.