First the good news.
WODC’s Local Plan has been accepted by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate and will be presented to councillors for formal adoption at a special meeting on Thursday 27th September. This is a vital step in protecting against unnecessary and unwanted development in the AONB. In an earlier report, the Inspector said there was no need for the allocated site on the Woodstock Road in Stonesfield – the CALA site – in order to meet WODC’s housing numbers.
One of the most important paragraphs in the final report, as far as Stonesfield is concerned, is the following:
Para 5.34aii
- Within the Cotswolds AONB, windfall housing proposals on undeveloped land adjoining built up areas will be particularly closely scrutinised and will only be supported where there is convincing evidence of a specific local housing need such as needs identified through a neighbourhood plan or affordable housing needs specific to a particular settlement, for example through a rural exception site. Any such development would also need to be in accordance with the indicative distribution set out in Policy H1 and other relevant policies, including in particular the general principles in Policy OS2 and Policy EH1a
Now for the bad news.
Many of you wrote to object to the CALA development in Woodstock Road, and therefore you should have received a letter from WODC Planning and Strategic Housing department informing you that CALA have appealed WODC’s decision to refuse planning permission. So the fight to prevent building 68 unnecessary and inappropriate houses by this aggressive developer continues.
All of the representations made by Stonesfield residents have been forwarded to the Planning Inspectorate, who will take them into consideration when determining the appeal. We have the right to make further representations to the Inspectorate, and SUSTO would encourage everybody to write again emphasising new points that have been established since you originally wrote.
The SUSTO committee will supply a model letter highlighting these new points in the next week or so, which you can use to register your continued objection to this development.