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Tonight the eight week consultation of the Draft Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan draws to a close. The committee has been gathering your feedback throughout this period via our website, emails, letters, face to face conversations and at the Open Day which took place on the 17th June. To give you just a flavour of the views of the community, the following link will take you to a summary of the feedback gathered on that day:

WNP Open Day 17 June 2017

From the whole Neighbourhood Plan committee and on behalf of the community, thank you to everyone who has participated. Now the task of rebuilding the plan begins in light of your valued feedback.

Dear Wheatley and Holton,

For the past 16 months a dedicated band of volunteer residents of Wheatley and Holton have been beavering away to produce your Neighbourhood Plan. Through an extraordinary amount of hard work by the Committee and lots of fantastic feedback from you, the Community – the scale of which is hinted at by the Evidence Base which is posted elsewhere on this website – we have now arrived at the draft plan which we will now be published for consultation from now, this moment, until Friday 30th June. And here it is:

WNP_document_v23

Please take some time to read this and digest it. It is perhaps not overstating it to say that its contents will help to shape life in Wheatley and Holton for the next twenty years or so. And once you have done this, please let us know what you think.

Comment and feedback:

• electronically to the Chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee, John Fox: wnpchairman@gmail.com or to the Parish Clerks
• through the Parish and WNP websites
• in writing to The Parish Office, The Merry Bells, 89 High Street, Wheatley OX33 1XP or to the box in Wheatley Post Office
• and in person on WNP Open Day(s) / mini-Display sessions (more details to follow)

We’ve done our bit for now. The next stage is down to you.

Many thanks for your continued participation,

The Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan Committee

Statutory Public Consultation
Emerging Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan

May-June 2017

The Consultation has been introduced at the new format Wheatley Annual Parish Assembly, (Wheatley Primary, 03 May 2017.) WNP was represented in the general Q. and A. session which followed. Holton Parish is fully involved in drawing up The Emerging Plan and First copies of the Draft WNP will be sent to Councillors of both Parishes before their bi-monthly meetings on 08 May. Wheatley Parish Council, as the Qualifying Body, will then formally initiate Consultation. A dedicated meeting of each PC with WNP Committee reps is suggested for the week beginning 29 May, after Bank Holiday Monday and when people will have had 3 weeks to digest The Draft Plan.

The Public Consultation will receive feedback for ‘at least six weeks’ from the community, from SODC and OCC, and from other required bodies. ‘At least six weeks Consultation’ is required for a response from the community, from SODC and OCC. However it will end formally Friday 30 June, to allow slack for half-term, Bank Holiday and the General Election. SODC hope to hold the Community Referendum in September to validate [‘make’] the WNP.

The new SODC Emerging Local Plan 2033 of 29 March is not holding an Open Day in Wheatley, although it is a strategic site. Please note, Public Consultation responses to LP2033 above are due in to SODC by 17 May. [Google pdf version SODC LP2033 2nd Preferred Options Document]

Electronic copies of the Draft WNP will be sent to:
– SODC, OCC and 13 other statutory bodies
 Parish Clerks and Chairs of PCs
 all on the WNP contact list in Holton and Wheatley
 all groups, societies and organisations consulted by WNP Committee and Volunteers.

It will be available on the WNP and Parish Council websites [www.wheatleyparishcouncil.gov.uk; www.holtonparishcouncil.org.uk; www.wheatleyneighbourhoodplan.co.uk .]

Hard copies will be available in Wheatley Library and Wheatley Parish Office.
Also by appointment with Sonja Barter, Clerk to Holton PC (872334) and
copy held in Holton Village Hall.
Public Computers are available in Wheatley Library for electronic access.

Comment and feedback:
 electronically to John Fox, wnpchairman@gmail.com , or to Parish Clerks
 through Parish and WNP websites ,
 written to Wheatley Parish Office or to box in Wheatley Post Office
 and in Person on WNP Open Day(s) / mini-Display sessions.

PLEASE WATCH NOTICE BOARDS IN BOTH PARISHES
John Fox
Chairman

1. Neighbourhood Plan Drafting Workshops

a) Three Workshops were held in November-December, allowing 12 hours discussion   to formulate the Vision and Objectives for the Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan.

b) Community representatives from Holton joined the Workshops: Doris Pridmore, Alan East, Polly Davidson, Clare Wright. Their contribution has been invaluable.

c)  Three more Workshops in January will allow up to 9 hours discussion of strategies and policies needed for the Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan.

d) The framing of policies is the sharp end of a Neighbourhood Plan. They can be formulated as principles now, even though the size timing of any Oxford Brookes U. development is undecided. Policies have to be couched in precise language which can stand a legal challenge. SODC advisors will help with the wording, but the content remains ours.

e)  Road Map. Once our Draft NP has taken its first shape (end of January), it will be passed to SODC Planning and our new NP Advisers (see 3 c) below) for the professional wording  of policies we believe the community wants, and to confirm compliance with national and District policies. This will take up much of  February. We hope then to offer the Draft NP to the communities (Holton and Wheatley) in March for the required 6-week Consultation  before we submit it to the Examiner.

f)  The Oxford Brookes U. site has been the focus of development talk since 31 May 2016. It should be noted that WNP Land Use and Housing Team has also investigated pockets of land potentially available in Wheatley. We have also pressed to keep alive the ‘mixed use’ proposal for the OBU site, alongside housing (Preferred Sites, Draft LP32, June 2016). ‘Mixed use’ was barely heard in SODC pronouncements after the summer Consultation..

2. Three Unknowns

a) The new Bill on Local and Neighbourhood Planning went to The Lords in December after its 3^rd Reading in The Commons. The intention is to streamline NPs.

b) White Paper on Land Use due out in January. We will know more soon. (See below 3 d)

c) See 4 a) below, re. Consultations on Preferred Sites 1 and Preferred Sites 2.

 3. SODC and WNP

a) Neighbourhood Plan Adviser left early in August.

b) On 7 September, at WNP request, two SODC Planning officials were questioned by WNP full Committee (and Chairman HPC). Details were minuted and sent to both Parish Councils.

c) Again at WNP request, on 6 December, a meeting was held with SODC Chairman John Cotton and six members of WNP committee. Informal minutes were sent by WNP to both Parish Councils. We met the two new NP advisers who made an immediate impression.

d) Local MP, SODC Chair, new NP Advisers and District NP reps (including WNP) are due to meet on 20 January for clarifications and updates. WPC / HPC will be kept informed.

4. Oxford Brookes U. Site News

a) We still await feedback on the June-August SODC Consultation on Preferred Sites LP32. SODC and WNP hosted this for Wheatley/Brookes on 13 July in The Merry Bells. The scale  of response has delayed publication until February, along with a revised Preferred Sites (2), LP32 and further Consultation. These SODC-led Consultations are the last major community feedback which remain to be absorbed by WNP into the Plan if and where relevant.

b) OBU student and professorial involvement (Town Planning Degree Course, Final Year  Project) in OBU site investigation. This group collaborates with full knowledge of OBU and is welcomed by WNP. The first student exhibition (findings and recommendations) was held in December and WNP members were there to respond.

c) OBU is to convene a meeting on 6 February with reps from the two parish councils and WNP. The subject will be the Environmental Impact Assessment announced in November as part of Brookes’ applying for Outline Planning Permission for the site before selling.

d) Housing figures bandied around about the Oxford Brookes U. site since 31 May, ranged from ‘300+ – 600+’ (June) to ‘750 maximum’ (November). Parish councillors and WNP Committee members owe it to the community not to scaremonger on hypothetical or capacity- testing figures. I explained the ‘750’ on WNP Website in November. Real figures will come soon enough.

5. Community Consultation.

a) results of SODC Consultation Preferred Sites 1 LP32 and of future Consultation Preferred Sites 2 LP32 are still in the pipeline. (See 4 a))

b) All the WNP body of evidence including surveys, consultations, group encounters and sourced information on Wheatley is being collated. It will be made available during our  public Consultation (see 1 e) above) in March before Draft WNP submission to Examination.

6. When may a Neighbourhood Plan take effect ?

Increasingly, but unpredictably, NPs are being acknowledged by Planning authorities pre-submission, that is after Examination, but before they are finalised (or ‘made’) by District Council and  Local Referendum. After March, WNP will be approaching Examination.

My thanks go to the many people in both communities who have supported us up to now and in so many different ways. I must also name Gareth Morris, retiring Clerk to Wheatley P.C., who has been helpful beyond the call. WNP wish him a happy, fulfilled retirement.

John Fox

Chairman

Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan

3 January 2017

By John Fox, Chairman of the Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan Committee

Oxford Brookes University (OBU) has put its Wheatley Campus up for sale.  OBU wish to obtain Outline Planning Permission (OPP) to make the sale more attractive. As part of the OPP, OBU has announced a consultation for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).  In short,  what could be the maximum number of houses accommodated on the site and what would this do to the surrounding ‘environment’ – roads, schools, surgery, air quality and much more?

OBU Estates have kept in touch with Holton and Wheatley Parish Councils, and the Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan Committee which is now eleven months into being ‘made’ (completed). OBU have already met Wheatley and Holton councillors along with WNP representatives (28 September). We meet again in mid-December. We knew that the EIA was due and we are being included in discussions. WNP representatives will also meet with John Cotton, SODC Chairman, on 6 December.

WNP’s task of listening to the Community is drawing to a close after nine months, but we are still listening. Currently Wheatley and Holton residents are conducting (3) workshops to publish what we have heard the community wants (its Vision). We will soon publish it and with it, what is needed in practice (the Objectives) to make the Vision a reality. It is called a Neighbourhood Plan.

Share our confidence. There will probably be housing development at OBU, but we will have a statutory say in it and in shaping its impact.

At the start of the autumn, the Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan Committee engaged Community First Oxford (CFO) to organise a housing needs survey for Wheatley and Holton together with an additional questionnaire prepared directly by the Committee that asked the residents to express their view about the villages. The complete CFO report is available on the link below and everyone is invited to send in any comments on the report to the WNP Committee.

The response to the questionnaire was 35.7% which is well in line with the response that has been seen at local council elections during the last 10 years.  So, we can attach a high rate of significance to the views expressed in the replies to the questionnaire.

Perhaps not surprisingly the CFO report highlighted the overwhelming need for affordable and starter homes in the villages. Before trying to satisfy this need it is first necessary to examine what is really meant by a “starter home” or “affordable housing”.  Currently the average price for a house in the UK is around £300,000 with the average price for a home with two or fewer bedrooms is around £200,000.  It is the latter house that most people would consider to be a starter home.  However in the case of Wheatley and Holton the CFO report shows that only 15% of the houses are valued at £300,000 or less.  It must be recognised however that the cost of starter homes is a general problem of the South East and not just Wheatley and Holton in particular.

In addition to emphasising the need for starter homes the CFO report also showed that the residents were not prepared to sacrifice the green belt for housing development but instead wanted more use to be made of  “brownfield” sites.

The WNP questionnaire revealed that, in general, residents were mostly satisfied with the features, services and general environment provided by the villages. There were many constructive comments as to how the villages could be improved, in particular the High St. and its appearance.  There were other areas of concern also highlighted (eg the state of pavements and footpaths)  and hopefully many of them can be addressed in the future.

There was one significant source of dissatisfaction however… perhaps unsurprisingly traffic and parking.  Congestion at peak times, “park and riders”, parking chaos at the primary school, Church Road blockages etc. Frustration and annoyance about all of these issues were expressed in the questionnaire.  We may be reaching a “tipping point” with this issue.

The focus of much of the reported concern is that great unknown: the fate of the Oxford Brookes University (OBU) site that is due to be vacated by 2021-22.  OBU intend to sell the site with planning permission for housing development.  The exact number of houses that could be accommodated on the site is not yet clear but projections suggest that at least 300 homes could be provided. In general the questionnaire indicates there is very little objection to such a housing development. In fact many respondents welcomed the change of use and loss of the tower block! However, irrespective of the final number of homes there will inevitably be an impact on the villages and the response to the questionnaire highlighted a number of concerns and issues that hopefully will be addressed by the preparation of a Neighbourhood Plan.

The full CFO report and the summary of the Community Questionnaire are available via the following links:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/20r9g6xx8wtpwpv/Wheatley%20Neighbourhood%20Plan%20Survey%20Report%20October%202016.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zu7cg8w928ic2nq/WNP_slides_for_CFO_website_summary.pptx?dl=0

Please take the opportunity to review all the findings.  Further comments and views are most welcome.

WNP Committee

Thank you to everyone who has already completed their questionnaires and sent them back using the prepaid envelope or dropped them into the Parish Council office in the Merry Bells. So a reminder that the deadline for sending these in is the 31st August and every response matters so please take a minute to let us know your views. Many thanks in advance for your participation!

Hopefully you will have received your copy of the Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan Community Survey through your letterbox. Please take the time to respond to help shape the future of our community. The deadline is the 31st August and you can either use the enclosed Freepost envelope to post it back or drop it off in the envelope at Wheatley Parish Council office – if you do it that way, you do help us save on our postage costs! Many thanks for your participation.

On Wednesday 13th July between 3pm and 7pm at the Merry Bells in Wheatley, SODC will be holding a public consultation on the planned new housing in Wheatley. The Wheatley Neighbourhood Plan Committee will also be represented. Please come along to find out more about the plans.

Many of you might have received a mini-questionnaire through your letterbox lately asking some simple questions about living in Wheatley. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what you love about living in the village and what irks you! If you haven’t received one, please email info@wheatleyneighbourhoodplan.co.uk and we’ll get a copy out to you to complete. Thanks in advance for your comments!