The man who led the creation of Oxfordshire’s only existing Neighbourhood Plan has defended it, despite protests about a development it supports.

Thame town councillor Mike Dyer spoke after more than 1,000 people signed a petition opposing a key housing site in the plan, the only one so far in operation.

More than 30 towns, villages and neighbourhoods in Oxford and across the county are now drawing up Neighbourhood Plans.

Created under the 2011 Localism Act, the plans allow residents to outline where new houses and businesses should go and what they should look like.

Once a plan has passed a town-wide referendum, developers must prove they have taken it into account.

Town councillors in Thame, the first and only Oxfordshire town to adopt its plan, said it was doing “exactly what they wanted”.

But an increasing number of residents are fighting one of the plan’s recommended sites for homes, The Elms, which a developer is now trying to build on.

Campaigner Tom Marianczak, who lives in Elms Road, said: “They are trying to build 45 monstrosities in the centre of Thame. They don’t represent anything remotely similar to what is in the town architecturally.”

Rectory Homes applied for planning permission to build the homes to South Oxfordshire District Council on July 30.

Mr Marianczak, a web developer, said because The Elms was in the Thame Conservation Area. If it had not been in the Neighbourhood Plan it would have been more difficult for developers to get planning permission.

He admitted he had not been involved with the team that prepared the plan but said it had not been well publicised to residents.

But Mr Dyer, who led the creation of the plan in 2012, said it he was “absolutely” still behind it.

He acknowledged the plan would make it easier for the site to get permission, but said: “We had to allocate land for 775 houses and we did.

“Prior to the Neighbourhood Plan, 80 per cent of people didn’t know that field existed and 50 per cent of people still don’t.

“It is absolutely still my position that the plan is doing what we want it to.”

What are Neighbourhood Plans?

Neighbourhood Planning was created by the Localism Act 2011 to give local communities new rights and powers.
They can be taken forward either by a parish council or, if there is no council, a neighbourhood forum.
Only these groups can develop a Neighbourhood Plan. Under the act, communities can also influence developments they want to see without the need for planning applications using Neighbourhood Development Orders.
Neighbourhood Plans must accord with a district council’s Local Plan or Core Strategy for development. They must pass an area referendum and finally be approved by a government planning inspector.
Once adopted, all housing developers putting in planning applications must ensure their plans accord with the Neighbourhood Plan.

Mr Dyer said he would not give his personal view on this specific planning application before it went to the council’s planning committee, but said he would “actively take part in the debate” about its merits then.

And he warned other towns: “Be prepared to be just as busy monitoring the implementation of the plan as you were developing it.”

Summertown resident Martin Roberts, who is leading a committee of 15 people steering the creation of a Neighbourhood Plan for St Margaret’s ward, said Thame’s experience was a warning to other areas on how to proceed.

Mr Roberts, 72, said: “The Thame situation reinforces a feeling that we have already that we have to be very, very careful how we proceed. The one tricky thing, as shown by Thame, is the need to make sure that one carries the town all the way.

“It is a huge exercise.”

He added: “We are trying to make sure as we proceed step-by-step that we make all 6,000 households aware of what we are doing.”

The St Margarets Neighbourhood Plan team is organising a public workshop and meeting at St Margaret’s Institute, Polstead Road, on Monday from 8pm.

Mr Roberts said: “Over the next few months we want to draw up our assessment of the key issues are for this ward.

“We think they fall into five areas – community and health, housing, environment, transport and retail.”

THE population of Wantage and Grove is set to double in the next 15 years as 5,500 new homes are built in various developments.

With that in mind, town councillors voted to take the initiative, take the money available, and plan for the future.

Four resident-led steering groups have now been set up to look into business and economy, heritage and conservation, transport, education and health and leisure and sport.

But town mayor Fiona Roper, pictured, admitted getting the whole town on side was always going to be a challenge.

Oxford Mail:

She said: “It is difficult. We are going to send a questionnaire to every resident, so hopefully that should be a wake-up call.

“But it is difficult to get to those people who don’t read the noticeboards or the newspapers.

“We have had three stands in the market place, a drop-in event at the civic hall and we have a website.

“Hopefully people won’t be able to say ‘You never told us about this’.”

For their latest public engagement, the steering groups are holding a public exhibition of their ideas so far at the Vale and Downland Museum, Church Street.

Display boards went up on Tuesday and will be there for people to comment on every day from 9.30am to 4pm until Saturday, September 20.

District councils are obliged to provide funding up to £15,000 to help residents draw up Neighbourhood Plans.

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