Summary

Summary

This is a new Local Plan for Cherwell District; a statutory Plan to guide our decisions on planning applications and to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.  It is a Plan to meet our development needs, to respond to climate change, to protect our environment and to support our local economy and communities.

The Plan is informed by developing an understanding of the needs, issues and challenges that provide the context for development. We want to meet identified needs but to do so in a way that benefits our local areas and protects or enhances our most valued assets.

To do this the Plan is informed by three formal consultations in 2020, 2021 and 2023.  We have considered what matters to local communities, what the development industry has had to say, what the views are of other stakeholders and technical advisers.  We have engaged directly with our Town and Parish Councils and neighbouring authorities and gathered evidence to objectively understand our development needs and planning context.   

Our planning policies must respond by facilitating and guiding development to help support our communities, create opportunities for all, improve our places to live and work, respond to challenges such as climate change, and protect our environment, landscape and built heritage.

The Plan sets out a vision and proposes homes, employment land, infrastructure and other essential services required to support the local community over the Plan period.

Overarching themes 

The Plan has three overarching themes 

1. Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change and Ensuring Sustainable Development.
2. Maintaining and Developing a Sustainable Local Economy.
3. Building Healthy and Sustainable Communities.

The Plan then proposes a series of fifteen objectives for meeting the vision and addressing these themes.

Finally, it presents a strategy, policies, and proposals for meeting these objectives and delivering the vision.

In summary the overall strategy is to:

• Ensure that our committed growth is delivered
• Focus new development at Banbury and Bicester and to a lesser extent in the Kidlington area
• Revitalise our urban centres and encourage investment
• Raise the design quality of our built and ‘green’ environments
• Minimise carbon emissions and achieve set net gains in biodiversity in delivering new development. 

The district-wide strategy is supported by area strategies for Banbury, Bicester, Kidlington, Heyford Park and the Rural Areas:

Spatial Strategies

District

• Ensure that our committed growth is delivered
• Focus new development at Bicester, Banbury and to a lesser extent in the Kidlington area
• Revitalise our urban centres and encourage investment
• Minimise carbon emissions and achieve set net gains in biodiversity in delivering new development
• Raise design standards and improvements to the built environment to elevate the attractiveness of our towns and villages, while conserving our historic environment
• Ensure that new development improves well-being through design, accessibility, social interaction, the provision of amenities and facilities and opportunities for active travel and recreation 
• Encourage new development that improves opportunity for all and in particular provides access to housing to meet all needs.

Banbury

• Deliver committed development and provide for some limited additional growth reflecting the topographical, landscape and rural character constraints of the town’s edge
• Revitalise, appropriately repurpose and seek further investment in the town centre, continue to improve its built and ‘green’ environment and public realm and further develop the nighttime economy
• Continue to support and strengthen the town’s economy and diversify its skill base
• Encourage development proposals that will support education and help reduce deprivation
• Seek strategic transport improvements to encourage active travel, reduce congestion and pollution, and reduce cross town traffic by motorised vehicles.

Bicester

• Deliver committed development and be the focus for additional development reflecting the town’s on-going growth and transformation as a sustainable Garden Town and its regional and sub-regional location on the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor and East-West Rail route.
• Continue to maximise the benefits of having key international and national destinations and economic activity to support further business investment.
• Support the continued improvement of the town’s centre, its facilities, its public realm and ‘green’ environment.
• Resolve transport connectivity and infrastructure challenges and encourage active travel.

Kidlington

• Strengthen Kidlington’s role as a Local Centre for the wider area
• Continue to maximise and encourage investment in key economic assets including the High Street, Parades, Oxford Technology Park, London-Oxford Airport, Begbroke Science Park and at Langford Lane (Technology corridor)
• Continue to maximise the benefits of localised connectivity to key national and international destinations to support inward investment
• Improve the built and ‘green’ environment of the High Street, Parades and wider Kidlington area 
• Deliver the committed 4,400 homes to help Oxford’s housing needs
• Ensure the planned benefits of committed developments for the communities of Kidlington, Gosford and Water Eaton, Begbroke and Yarnton are delivered
• Resolve transport connectivity and infrastructure challenges and encourage active travel.

Heyford Park

• Ensure the implementation of the committed growth at Heyford Park to fully establish the new settlement already planned whilst preserving and enhancing the area’s heritage significance.

Rural Areas

• Protect the identity and character of our villages and rural areas and avoid unplanned development in the open countryside
• Provide for limited development to meet local community and business needs and help support the vitality of these more rural settlements and the viability of existing businesses and agriculture/farms
• Direct the development of new housing to the larger and more sustainable villages that offer a wider range of services, and to a lesser extent to villages that are well-connected to our urban areas and sustainable villages
• Maintain the designated Green Belt
• Conserve and enhance the Cotswolds National Landscape (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty)
• Conserve and enhance designated heritage assets.

Policies

We have prepared planning policies under the three themes of the Plan to deliver our vision and objectives:

The Plan proposes policies for settlement hierarchy; addressing climate change; energy; carbon emissions; flood risk, drainage and water management; the protection and enhancement of environmental assets, including biodiversity net gain, natural capital and green and blue infrastructure; air quality and pollution; soils and land stability; waste and recycling, sustainable transport, connectivity and transport impact; and the effective and efficient use of land.

Theme Two: Maintaining and Developing a  Sustainable Local Economy

The Plan includes policies for meeting business and employment needs, agriculture, rural diversification, tourism and town centres and retail.

Theme Three: Building Healthy and Sustainable Communities

The Plan contains policies for the district-wide housing distribution, affordable housing, housing mix, size and type, specialist housing, self-build and custom build housing, sub-division of dwellings and homes in multiple occupation.  It provides for the travelling communities, landscape protection and designations, the protection of the Green Belt, settlement gaps, design, active travel, rights of way, health, infrastructure  and services, education, utilities, open space, sport and recreation, green spaces and historic environment including the Oxford Canal.

Policies

Policies are proposed for the area strategies for Banbury and Bicester, the Kidlington area, Heyford Park and the rural areas. This includes site specific policies, the identification of opportunity areas and area specific policies for transport, and green and blue infrastructure.  Policies for the rural area include those for housing distribution, rural exception sites, new dwellings and conversions in the countryside and community-led housing development.

Finally we have a policy for implementation of the Plan  and monitoring its delivery.

Housing requirement

The district has very significant existing supply of housing. Cherwell provided 4,477 new homes from 2020-2024, has land supply for another 12,525 homes and has planned sites for  4,400 homes to help meet Oxford’s unmet housing needs. A total of 21,402 homes.  

In principle, identified needs could be met from the existing supply identified.  There is no reason why identified housing need cannot be met and the Plan therefore proposes a housing requirement equal to the need for 911 homes per annum from 2020 to 2042 - a total of 20,042 homes.

Overall planned supply

The Proposed Plan makes provision for some additional homes to ensure delivery, provide contingency, meet our plan objectives and accord with Government policy.  This helps us demonstrate a robust supply of deliverable housing sites for the first five years following the potential adoption of the Plan (2026-2031).  It also supports the delivery of further social/affordable housing and supports place making.  An additional 3,185 homes are provided for.

Overall housing supply from 2020 to 2042 will therefore be as follows:

*A further 4,300 homes would be delivered at North West Bicester beyond 2042.

Proposed New Housing Sites

Most housing site policies from the adopted Cherwell Local Plan 2011-2031 and the Partial Review of that Plan are proposed to be saved  by this Plan (see Appendix 1).  A small number of sites have been reviewed and revised policies proposed. These include the Canalside and Bolton Road sites in Banbury and the North West Bicester allocation.

The new additional sites now proposed are:

Employment Generating Development

Our employment evidence indicates a need for around 280 hectares of employment land within Cherwell in the period to 2042. 

Our last Local Plan identified a significant amount of employment land and whilst much of this has been developed there remain substantial areas of land available. Undeveloped allocations from our last Local Plan, would make a contribution of over 160 hectares against the need total. We have also taken account of other completed or approved employment since the start of the Plan period.

Infrastructure

The Plan is supported by an Infrastructure Delivery Plan which plays a vital role in supporting the implementation of the Plan. It sets out the range of infrastructure, such as highway and transport improvements, additional health and education provision, sport and play facilities, and basic utilities, required to support our proposed housing and employment allocations.

Delivering this Plan

The Plan provides the statutory policy framework for planning decisions in Cherwell. It is complemented by the County Council’s Minerals and Waste Plans, its Local Transport and Connectivity Plan and by Neighbourhood Plans produced by Parish (or Town) Councils.  Whilst the Council is rarely a direct provider of development, it will use its planning policies to do its utmost to secure a ‘Plan-led’ approach in working with the development industry.

Where the Council is required to consider unplanned development, we will use the Plan’s policies in the interest of seeking a positive impact on our towns, villages and countryside. We will monitor the effectiveness of the Plan’s polices through an Annual Monitoring Report to ensure they are meeting their purposes.

We will also encourage collective ownership of the Plan to support the delivery of beneficial development and ensure that our important objectives are met.  We will work with our partners to support implementation and to make Cherwell an even better place in which to live and work.