South and Vale Joint Local Plan: Our Response

CPRE Oxfordshire have submitted a detailed response to the South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse consultation, along with a request to participate in the hearings.

We are largely supportive of this Plan and commend the extensive consultation which has been undertaken to produce it, including asking consultees to rank priorities, with “protecting the countryside” coming out as the top priority. Given that we have experts across all fields in the area of countryside protection, we believe that CPRE Oxfordshire are best placed to voice areas of concern in relation to this top consultee priority.

We have provided detailed policy feedback in our submission but our primary areas of concern relate to a lack of a standalone Green Belt Policy, an omission from the previous Plan and a lack of a clearly defined “Rooftop first” approach to Renewable Energy.