Vale rethinks village housing policies (From The Oxford Times)

Vale rethinks village housing policies

6:00pm Tuesday 15th May 2012 in Wantage

COUNCIL leaders in the Vale of White Horse have ditched a planning policy which could have made it easier for developers to build new village homes.

Earlier this year, the council said it planned to relax its planning policy until 1,000 new homes are built, or until its core housing strategy blueprint is agreed in 2014.

After the council announced it was consulting on the interim housing supply policy, major developments were proposed in Marcham, Drayton, Kingston Bagpuize, Harwell, Steventon and Sutton Courtenay.

Council leaders had planned to adopt the policy tomorrow, but have now abandoned the move because of legal changes in planning law introduced by the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework.

Vale leader Matthew Barber said it would soon publish a new timetable for agreeing the core housing strategy.