A CITY heritage group has called new proposals for getting residents more involved in planning decisions nothing more than a “boxticking”exercise.

Earlier this month Oxford City Council ended a six-week consultation on how it should inform people about planning applications.

It came amid an ongoing row over the Castle Mill student flats, which campaigners said ruined views from Port Meadow.

The council has been at the centre of the furore because it approved plans for the Roger Dudman Way buildings in 2012.

Campaigners have long claimed there was not enough public consultation at the time the scheme was originally submitted.


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Oxford Civic Society said last week the new “statement of community involvement” from the council would have made no difference.

Group chairman Peter Thompson said: “Our concern is that this seems to have more to do with ticking boxes and fulfilling legal requirements than trying to involve local groups.

“The council should be trying to get the public involved in coming up with new ideas through meetings, rather than just presenting some to them and asking for a response.

“We think the effectiveness of consultation needs to be measured by whether the responses were actually considered and, if they are not adopted, the cases given for how they were examined.

“Responding to planning applications should also be made easier.

“The system is basically completely electronic and all but the biggest applications can only be found on the council’s website.

“The system needs to be overhauled.”

At the moment, new planning applications are advertised by the city council in the Oxford Mail and its sister papers, including The Oxford Times, and can also be seen online at oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decP/Planning In its new proposed statement of community involvement, the city council said it wanted to involve local people in planning decisions at the earliest point in the process.

The council said: “Consultation will start as early as possible to give everyone the opportunity to participate.

But city council leader Bob Price said the society had “misunderstood” the statement.