South Oxfordshire Sustainability

Working for sustainable food, planning, water and waste policies in our area

Planning

Probably the greatest immediate challenge facing SOS is planning. Can our county, and district, realistically hope to absorb the over 100,000 new homes recently proposed for Oxfordshire and yet maintain a high level of sustainability and design? We have sent SODC detailed suggestions for strengthening the planning system and feed our ideas into leading members of SODC Planning Committee, as well as Wallingford and Henley Town Councils. We see the proposed large scale (1100 new homes) new housing development for Wallingford as a vital testing ground of what might be achieved if the local community works closely with SODC and the developers.  We have involved local school children, and are part of the SODC FOcus Group designed to involve local people in consultation as the plans evolve.

We believe strongly in the need, both for ourselves in local green groups and more widely for the local community, to learn from the example of the best designed and most sustainable housing schemes elsewhere. We therefore commissioned a study in this area from Oxford University students.

A packed public meeting in Wallingford Town Hall on 6 June 2014 heard two leading experts talk at the cutting edge of new housing design and sustainability give their views how Wallingford’s proposed new housing might develop. Paul Black, who has worked closely with the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust on their exciting new eco-development at Derwenthorpe (just outside York) – and lives there – made the following presentation with slides:
Arrow-Icon  Derwenthorpe Details for Sustainable Wallingford

Opinder Liddar, local green architect, spoke (again with slides) of how principles of sustainable design might be applied on the site. His presentation is available here:
Arrow-Icon Follow up Wallingford

A number of people signed up to work with Sustainable Wallingford and South Oxfordshire Sustainability, SODC and the developers  to help make these aspirations a reality. Anyone else who would like to be actively involved should contact John Gordon at planning@southoxfordshiresustainability.org.uk.

Arrow-Icon SOS Comments on Local Plan 2033

Upcoming Events

  • Tue
    17
    May
    2016

    URGENT - PUBLIC MEETING on OXFORDSHIRE PLANNING, 17 MAY

    7:30 pmWallingford Town Hall
    SOS, together with Sustainable  Wallingford and the Need Not Greed campaign, are sponsoring a public meeting in Wallingford Town Hall on Tuesday, 17 May at 7.30. This is part of a wider effort to alert people across the county to the need to respond to current Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) consultations on the SEP REFRESH strategy, which threatens to overwhelm us with 100,00o new homes, 85,000 new jobs - and a new Didcot every two years.
     
    if it goes through there will be increased pressure for new housing in many, if not most, of our towns and villages, as well as large scale potential environmental damage and serious potential increases both in air pollution and in greenhouse gas emissions.
     
    PLEASE HELP US PUBLICISE - PRINT OUT AND FIND PLACES TO DISPLAY THE ATTACHED POSTER:
     
     
    PLEASE COME YOURSELVES. PLEASE RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE
     
    PLEASE ENCOURAGE  ANYONE ELSE YOU TALK TO DO SO TOO (DEADLINE, 20 MAY)
     

    For suggestions on how to respond and further details  please  go to the Need Not Greed website

Contact for SOS Planning:

Sue Roberts : doctorsue.roberts@gmail.com

Save