Oxford Green Belt Study – read it here!
8th June 2015
CPRE has unearthed the Oxfordshire County Council’s ‘Oxford Green Belt Study – Tender Specification’, published in February 2015.
The Tender Specification outlines the terms of reference for the ‘Study’ (not ‘Review’) and the time-frame.
The submission of the first draft of the Report will be on 30 June. The local authorities, along with a ‘critical friend’ will review the draft Report in July and the final Report will be submitted at the end of August.
There are no current plans to carry out public consultation on the Study!
The Study answers many of CPRE’s questions, but raises many other concerns.
For instance, we are seeking clarification on how the Study’s acknowledgment that the Green Belt is permanent is reconcilable with retrospectively “studying” its “performance” against the criteria used to create it.
We should also like clarification on how the assessment is intended to be made and particularly whether a “part” of the Green Belt would need to show that it fulfilled more than one of the purposes or whether meeting one purpose to any degree is sufficient (which of course, it is).
We would also like to know how much the Study is costing.
We will be sharing more information about the Study on our website over the coming weeks.
See ‘Oxford Green Belt Review commissioned behind closed doors‘.
CPRE Oxfordshire, 8 June 2015