CONSULTATION on the Vale District Council’s ‘Supplementary Planning Document’ for Botley closes this week.

The document is disturbing. It appears to be an intention to thwart the wishes of local residents in a matter in which the council itself, as owner of much of the site in question, could stand to benefit financially.

I attended the meeting of the Vale’s planning committee last December when the application from Doric was unanimously rejected. One committee member said: “We can’t do this to Botley.”

Another commended the speeches against the application as an object lesson in community solidarity.

So why is this ‘plan’ to be foisted on Botley now? Why is community solidarity now disregarded?

Botley has a strong identity.

It is not an empty concept to be knocked down here, built up there, encumbered at a developer’s whim with features that are not wanted or needed.

By stating that only the comments of ‘stakeholders and statutory consultees’ will be taken into account when revising the draft, the council is disenfranchising the very views of Botley residents that it agreed with only nine months ago.

It is a pity that the Vale feels reduced to behaving in this way in order to force what it wants on the people of Botley.

JANET GODDEN (CLLR)
Oxfordshire County Council
North Hinksey ward