I WOULD like to thank Cllr Robins for pointing out that Layla Moran and the Liberal Democrats are committed to protecting the Oxford Green Belt in Kidlington, and I welcome his support.

It is a shame that the Labour PPC remains silent on the issue, and Tory MP Nicola Blackwood has already said she is in favour of building on Oxford’s Green Belt.

Therefore, only a vote for Layla at the next election means residents will elect an MP resolved to fight on their behalf on this issue.

Cllr Robins should be aware that a Green Belt Review has already been announced by the Oxfordshire Growth Board, although I think the timescale announced is quite inadequate.

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I believe that a full-scale Green Belt Review is possibly the best scenario for Cherwell’s villages in the Green Belt as I think that Kidlington, Begbroke and Yarnton would not only lose our separate identities through piecemeal development, but we would be engulfed by Oxford City.

Following the questions I asked at Cherwell’s Full Council in December concerning Green Belt development and the ability to scrutinise the process, I am confident that Cherwell will keep to the development outlined in the Local Plan. In this, Cherwell District Council states that the target of 250 homes set in the Local Plan can be made using existing sites within the natural village boundary.

Oxford Mail:

  • Green Belt land in Kidlington is under threat 

The sites mentioned by Cllr Robins are not within the boundary, and the Webbs Way site should be afforded additional protection due to it bordering on a conservation area, and being a wildlife corridor. So it is somewhat difficult to resist plans that frankly do not exist. Nevertheless, I can assure Cllr Robins that we do keep a close eye on potential development in the area.

He is also fully aware that his party colleagues on Oxford City Council have driven the need for a Green Belt Review; they too conducted a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, which did not appear to be quite as thorough as it should have been.

Cllr Alaric Rose (Liberal Democrat)
Kidlington North


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