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Search the Public Notice PortalAn Oxfordshire County Councillor has condemned the planning management of "inept" officials on the district council over a 400-home planning application under consideration.
Felix Bloomfield, conservative councillor for Benson and Cholsey division, who is also a Wallingford resident and ex-district councillor, said South Oxfordshire District Council have "very badly let down local residents and taxpayers over the past five years."
It comes amid widespread opposition for a housing development application from Croudace Homes, to build more than 400 new homes on the land west of Shillingford Road in Wallingford.
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A residents' campaign group, 'Wallingford Stop the Sprawl', was created to oppose the proposal, who stayed a protest earlier in the month.
Cllr Bloomfield said: "I fully support the residents of Wallingford and surrounding communities across South Oxfordshire in their fight to stop being continually blighted by unsustainable speculative development such as this.”
He said that because the district council failed to submit their Local Plan 2034 to central government in 2019 there were no frameworks in place for the council to regulate speculative applications.
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Cllr Bloomfield added: "Residents and communities across South Oxfordshire have seen the results of this disastrous planning mismanagement by our local district councillors as it has affected every community.
"Our towns and villages have been blighted and often swamped in recent years under this administration by thousands of new unsustainable speculative developments with no new infrastructure such as schools and doctors' surgeries.
"The future is bleak for all of us who live locally under the current inept bunch of councillors who form the administration of the district council."
The district council said they won’t be able to comment on the application until its decision date in February 2025, as it’s currently under consideration.
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Cllr Bloomfield also condemned the district council's decision to increase their basic allowance pay by 34 per cent, which he described as "scandalous".
The allowance was raised to £8,391 per annum, which the district council said was recommended by an independent panel following a review.
The panel said it "wished to ensure the level of basic allowance does not constitute a barrier to candidates from all sections of the community standing, or re-standing, for election as councillors."
Council leader David Rouane said: "Many councillors have to reduce their hours or take unpaid leave to do council work, and others have to take on extra childcare or caring support.
"Many people decide not to serve as councillors because they don’t know how they would juggle these costs.
"It’s my observation that this means councillors tend to be older, comfortably-off homeowners. I want to hear different voices."
"To make the council accessible we need to pay a reasonable allowance and offer further support."
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