Sir – Communities throughout West Oxfordshire continue to remain exposed and vulnerable to speculative development proposals as time goes on to what has become approximately half a decade without an adopted replacement to the Local Plan 2011.

On January 26, it was officially announced that planning inspector Simon Emerson “has formally suspended the examination of the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2031 until December 2016 to allow the council to undertake consultation on ‘main modifications’ in order to make the plan sound”.

Actually, December 2016 was WODC’s recently proposed submission date, with further examination hearings having been proposed to begin as late as February 2017. And, based on WODC’s previous adherence to its published timetables in earlier stages of the process, the prospect of adherence to the coming year’s timescales seems rather less convincing than the likelihood of further delays (especially based on the record and pace of “progress” in previous stages).

Also of concern is the extent of the recently approved suspension. Guidance from the Planning Inspectorate’s Examining Local Plans Procedural Practice publication (December 2013 v2) explains: “Up to six months’ suspension might be acceptable but a period greater than this is unlikely to be generally appropriate … A delay of more than six months would be likely to create a great deal of uncertainty within the examination process for those who have submitted representations at the publication stage.”

By the time WODC’s Local Plan can be approved, time will have moved a great deal further on toward the end of its duration in 2031; but, perhaps conveniently for some district councillors, the suspension enables inclusion of additional controversial sites for major development to be determined after the approaching district council elections in May 2016 with – to borrow a phrase from the Planning Inspectorate – “a great deal of uncertainty” meanwhile.

Sharone Parnes
Woodstock town councillor