Government planning policy on housing — you could not make it up. At least, that is, unless you are the Government, for whom making up housing policy as they go along has become something of a habit.

We have leapt from a position where a 15,000-home eco town at Weston-on-the-Green in addition to the thousands of homes already planned for Oxfordshire was a serious proposition to a situation where a smaller eco-town within the existing housing allocation is the front runner.

The campaigners of Weston-on-the-Green are too canny to start shouting a victory but it does appear that the much-heralded Weston Otmoor is dead in the water.

Ministers even had to apologise for previously suggesting that Weston Otmoor was planned for brownfield land. As we all know, these have always been green fields.

There is some serious, and very welcome, backtracking going on.

The recognition that Weston Otmoor, despite all the PR, does not have strong eco credentials now makes it unlikely to attract Government support.

We have been besieged by details of the Weston Otmoor scheme yet, by contrast, the eco-settlement now being proposed by Cherwell District Council is little more than a ring around some fields.

There is no detail about how new homes in this area could qualify as eco-homes. In spite of this, the Government still rates it higher than Weston Otmoor and is also saying that it is prepared to accept that this eco-settlement could be built within Cherwell District’s housing allocation.

Given the fears about the impact of Weston Otmoor on Bicester, it represents a clear political victory for Cherwell district and town leaders. Whatever they did, they did it well.