Vale’s Draft Local Plan – our response

Vale’s Draft Local Plan: housing and infrastructure are our chief concerns

CPRE has submitted a detailed response to the Vale of White Horse District’s Draft Local Plan, which outlines plans for development in the area until 2029. Major areas of concern for us include:

• The proposed increase in housing of nearly 30%, which allows not just for natural population growth within the Vale but a substantial net inward migration. Why? What policy is this based on? Where will jobs and supporting infrastructure come from?
• Infrastructure needs are not properly identified and costed. Many schools are already at capacity and transport over-stretched. How will the Vale ensure adequate infrastructure is in place before development takes place?
• Traffic: the A420, the A338 and the A417 are already under serious pressure. How will they be affected by the proposed development?   Where is the Vale’s detailed transport assessment showing how these problems will be addressed?
• Brownfield sites minimise the level of intrusion into the countryside. Where is the emphasis on identifying and prioritising such sites?
• This level of development will create an increase in air, light and noise pollution across the Vale. Where are the proposed measures to tackle this?
• The draft Local Plan says ‘The Smaller Villages have a low level of services and facilities, where any development should be modest in scale and primarily be to meet local needs.’  What is ‘modest’ and why the word ‘primarily’?

We hope that the Council will address these issues in the second draft of the Local Plan, which is due out for consultation later this summer.    
 
The full CPRE Vale of White Horse District response is available to download below. CPRE has been working closely with the Small Village Alliance, a network of villages across the Vale. The SVA response to the consultation is also available below.

Vale local plan – CPRE response
Vale local plan – Small Village Alliance response