10:00am Saturday 17th July 2010
By Chris Buratta
LIBERAL Democrats in Oxford are seeking to use the party’s new-found parliamentary clout to get plans for thousands of new homes south of the city back on track.
Local party members have tabled a motion at the party’s national conference calling for a “credible” housing policy to tackle the shortage of affordable homes in Oxford.
Plans to scrap the South East Plan were formally announced by Communities Minister Eric Pickles earlier this month – a move that effectively ends hopes of building 4,000 homes south of Grenoble Road.
The Government has also scrapped housing targets and handed power back to local authorities to decide where, and how much, housing should be built.
As the Grenoble Road site lies within South Oxfordshire – where the district council has always opposed the development plans – the site is unlikely to be built on in the near future.
Oxford City Council said it wants more housing but is constrained by a lack of sites within the city boundary and the Green Belt.
City Lib Dems have now tabled a motion to the party’s national conference, to be held in Liverpool in September, calling for a new housing policy to replace the scrapped regional plans. Councillor Patrick Murray said: “We need a credible housing policy that will provide affordable housing where it is needed. There is nowhere to build houses. That is the fundamental problem in Oxford.
“I am supportive of refurbishing empty homes and building on brownfield sites to meet housing need. But in Oxford it is not a realistic option.”
“The South East Plan was flawed, but the reason for it, and the defence for it, was it forced councils who otherwise would not have built affordable housing to build them.
Mr Murray said the new planning arrangements did not help Oxford.
He added: “If you don’t do something about areas that have few brownfield sites left it means nothing. Unless you have a strategic policy that gets houses built, the problems will get worse and it’s not morally acceptable to allow that to happen.”
Mr Murray said any motion agreed by the Liberal Democrat conference became party policy and would force members of the coalition to pursue it with Conservative coalition counterparts.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England has opposed development in Oxford’s Green Belt.
Spokesman Dr Helena Whall said: “We are calling for housing and employment to be spread around the Oxfordshire sub-region.”
An inquiry into the strategy, which includes controversial plans for a northern gateway development of houses and a business park near the Pear Tree Roundabout in North Oxford, was put on ice last year pending legal challenges to the now defunct South East Plan.
The core strategy inquiry hearings resume on September 14.
The strategy will be the blueprint for development in Oxford to 2026.
It can only be adopted once the Government’s planning inspector, Stephen Pratt, rules it is sound.
The Government is committed to replacing Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), which were responsible for the old regional plans.
It wants new local enterprise partnerships that will bring together councils and business.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk