It is no secret that the county of Oxfordshire faces a housing crisis.
But for too long there has been a reluctance to accept the fact that new homes have to be built in and around the city of Oxford.
City council planning officers have long known this, but there is a steadfast refusal on the part of Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire District Council and the Campaign to Protect Rural England to recognise this.
Now the whole sorry saga could end up in a costly High Court battle.
Although the Government has approved the construction of 4,000 homes on land south of Grenoble Road, on the outskirts of the city, as part of the South East Plan – a blueprint for the region’s development – the district council is now preparing to challenge this in court.
The trouble is that although the city wants – and needs – the homes, the land falls within the administrative boundaries of South Oxfordshire.
Last night, the district council said it was prepared to spend up to £50,000 of taxpayers’ money challenging parts of the South East Plan in the High Court.
And the county council and CPRE said they would join them in the legal action.
We tear our hair out in despair each time the words ‘houses’ and ‘Oxford’ are mentioned in the same breath.
Those who don’t want to see any new homes built in and around the city generally don’t live there and have little knowledge of the severe housing pressures facing Oxford.
Yet these are the same people who are prepared to pepper market towns like Didcot, Abingdon, Witney and Banbury with thousands more homes, conveniently forgetting that a great many of those who buy these houses will have to drive across the Green Belt to reach work in Oxford.
And let’s not forget that the clogged-up A34 cannot cope with much more traffic.
It’s time to drop this silly legal stunt and concentrate on the more pressing task of building new homes where the need is greatest.
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