Local plan facing legal challenge

CAMPAIGNERS have launched a legal challenge to South Oxfordshire’s local plan.

They say that it contradicts the Government’s climate change targets.

The challenge is being led by district councillor Sue Roberts through her community interest company Bioabundance, which aims to restore nature in Oxfordshire.

The council was required to adopt a local plan before the end of last year following Government intervention but many councillors opted to abstain from the vote.

Among them was council leader Sue Cooper who said she would not be bullied into voting for something she had fought against.

The plan was approved by 17 votes to seven, with nine abstentions.

The Liberal Democrat and Green coalition, which took charge of the council in May 2019, committed to 24,000 homes by 2035, but there were serious concerns among councillors about the suitability of sites, lack of attention towards climate change and the overall number of houses.

In October 2019, the council was proposing to withdraw the plan, which had been drawn up by the previous Conservative administration but Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick intervened.

Councillor Roberts, director of Bioabundance, said: “The local plan grossly over-provides for housing: space is allocated for more than 30,000 homes, four times the number that can even be filled, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

“Unneeded housing is no rationale for worsening climate breakdown and the collapse of the natural world.

“This is the first time a local plan has ever been challenged because of our climate and ecological crisis. This pioneering action by Bioabundance is our last chance to put our environment before housebuilder profit in South Oxfordshire.”

Tom Short, a solicitor representing the campaigners, said: “Our client is concerned about both the manner in which the local plan has been forced through under enormous pressure from the Secretary of State and the detrimental environmental impacts it will lead to.

“It is important that decisions of local authorities that have significant ramifications for the environment for years to come be taken in a free and fair manner, not dictated by central government as appears to have happened here.”

Councillor Cooper said she the campaigners were entitled to pursue a case, but she wanted to draw up a new local plan in conjunction with the Vale of White Horse District Council.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England described the plan as “deeply flawed”.

A district council spokesman said confirmed it had received a challenge, adding: “We will be responding accordingly but we can’t comment further at this stage as this is a legal matter.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government declined to comment.