CALA want to hear from you
CALA and their planning consultants Pegasus have sent a leaflet (see link at bottom of this post) to every house in Stonesfield inviting residents “to make any comments on the proposed landscaping scheme” for their development on the Woodstock Road.
Stonesfield residents have consistently and successfully ‘made comments’ for the last couple of years objecting to this inappropriate ‘urban’ development of 68 houses in the Cotswolds AONB.
We’re now asking you to write once again.
We strongly urge everybody to write to Pegasus and object, especially as they said they will forward all comments to the Inspector. There is a danger that CALA may try and argue that comments made a couple of years ago are now out of date, so fresh objections are really worthwhile.
You can email your comments to Pegasus at stonesfield@pegasusgroup.co.uk
Please copy your emails to Sustainable Stonesfield at sustainable.stonesfield@gmail.com so we have a record of what you said and can check that they did forward them all to the Inspector. The deadline is Friday 1st March, so don’t delay.
Your ‘comments’ should preferably focus on landscape, the AONB and the Local Plan as these are the issues raised in their leaflet, not the wider arguments of housing need and sustainability because we don’t want to show our hand on these issues before the Inquiry.
No amount of landscaping can hide this unwanted development of 68 houses in the Cotswolds AONB. In the AONB there is a requirement to ‘conserve and enhance’ the landscape – this development will do neither.
The Uplands Planning Committee knew of CALA’s offer to expand the landscape buffer as shown in the leaflet when they discussed the application. The Planners still refused saying: “The development would not acceptably integrate into this location and would be detrimental to its character and appearance. It would not effectively moderate and mitigate harm to the landscape.”
CALA’s leaflet refers to the ‘emerging’ Local Plan 2031. However, they omit to say that by the time the Uplands Planning committee heard their application the Local Plan Inspector had advised that there was no need to have the Woodstock Road site allocated in the Plan because it was in the AONB. The District Council accepted the Inspector’s recommendation and removed the site from the Plan.
Richard Morris
Chair of Sustainable Stonesfield
PS Please send this information to friends and neighbours who might not be signed up to SUSTO / website. Tell as many people as possible and get them to write.
PPS If you want to see what a CALA development would look like I urge you to go to Long Hanborough. CALA have a site on the Church Hanborough Road. Drive in to get a full understanding of the poor house design, especially of the cramped, redbrick affordable units. In their literature CALA say they respect vernacular architecture ….
You can write to us at: sustainable.stonesfield@gmail.com
Please bear in mind that we are not an office and we have no secretarial help, so unless it’s really necessary, or you have a really good idea, or are offering to help, please don’t!
Our mailing address is: Sustainable Stonesfield, Austin’s Farm, High Street, Stonesfield, Oxfordshire OX29 8PU