Cabinet on 8 June will consider the report of the Head of Planning Services and the Oxford Local Plan 2036, and will decide whether to recommend that Council agrees to adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, will introduce the report and the Local Plan and move the recommendations.

Recommendations: That Council resolves to:

1.     Adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036 (set out at Appendix 1 to this report), which incorporates the Inspectors’ Main Modifications (set out at Appendix 3 to this report) and the City Council’s Additional Modifications (set out at Appendix 4 to this report) as part of the statutory development plan for the area as listed in Appendix 6;

2.     Adopt the updates to the Oxford City Adopted Policies Map in line with the Oxford Local Plan 2036 set out at Appendix 5 to this report; and

3.     Authorise the Head of Planning Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, to finalise the necessary documents to support adoption including the Adoption Statement (draft as Appendix 7) and Sustainability Statement (draft as Appendix 8) and to make such minor editorial corrections to the adopted Local Plan (Appendix 1) and Policies Map (Appendix 5) as deemed necessary ahead of publication. This will include a final desktop published version of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 and adopted policies map.

Note: Any amendments from Councillors must be sent to the Head of Law and Governance via democraticservices@oxford.gov.uk and must arrive no later than 10.00am Friday 5 June 2020.

Council considered the report of the Head of Planning Services submitted to Cabinet on 8 June 2020 recommending the adoption of the Oxford Local Plan 2036; the Local Plan documents appended to that report; and the recommendations from the Cabinet meeting.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery, spoke to the report by first thanking officers, with particular reference to those in the Planning Team, for their work over the last 4 years in getting the plan to its current stage. He noted that the Planning Inspector had also taken time at the end of the hearings to thank officers  for the excellent and detailed presentation of evidence and knowledge they had brought to the process which was a tribute to all those involved.

He proposed that Council adopt the Local Plan and supporting documents and agree the 4 recommendations proposed by Cabinet and circulated before the Council meeting. This was seconded by Councillor Tanner.

Councillor Wolff proposed and Councillor Gant seconded an amendment to add a further recommendation 5 to read:

(Council resolves to) REQUEST that this revised timeline for the Local Plan review be taken as an opportunity to accelerate the adoption of new thinking on how to respond to the Climate Emergency, in particular the recommendations generated by the Citizens Assembly, the Climate Emergency Review Group (to be considered by Cabinet in October 2020 at the earliest) and the expressed intent, by local and national Government, to 'build back better' post-COVID-19.

The Head of Law and Governance drew Council’s attention to the previously circulated advice from the Head of Planning that Council does not include this amendment as it could undermine the Local Plan.

After being debated, and put to the vote by means of a roll call, the amendment was declared lost.

Council considered the 4 recommendations from Cabinet. After being debated and put to the vote by means of a roll call the Cabinet recommendations, including the adoption of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 and associated updates to the policies map, were declared carried.

Council resolved to

1.    Adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036 (set out at Appendix 1 to the officer’s report), which incorporates the Inspectors’ Main Modifications (set out at Appendix 3 to this report) and the City Council’s Additional Modifications (set out at Appendix 4 to the report) as part of the statutory development plan for the area as listed in Appendix 6;

2.    Adopt the updates to the Oxford City Adopted Policies Map in line with the Oxford Local Plan 2036 set out at Appendix 5 to the report;

3.    Authorise the Head of Planning Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, to finalise the necessary documents to support adoption including the Adoption Statement (draft as Appendix 7) and Sustainability Statement (draft as Appendix 8) and to make such minor editorial corrections to the adopted Local Plan (Appendix 1) and Policies Map (Appendix 5) as deemed necessary ahead of publication. This will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13

That Cabinet resolves to:

1.       Recommend that Council agrees to adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036 and associated updates to the policies map; and recommend

That Council resolves to:

1.       Adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036 (set out at Appendix 1 to this report), which incorporates the Inspectors’ Main Modifications (set out at Appendix 3 to this report) and the City Council’s Additional Modifications (set out at Appendix 4 to this report) as part of the statutory development plan for the area as listed in Appendix 6;

2.       Adopt the updates to the Oxford City Adopted Policies Map in line with the Oxford Local Plan 2036 set out at Appendix 5 to this report; and

3.       Authorise the Head of Planning Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, to finalise the necessary documents to support adoption including the Adoption Statement (draft as Appendix 7) and Sustainability Statement (draft as Appendix 8) and to make such minor editorial corrections to the adopted Local Plan (Appendix 1) and Policies Map (Appendix 5) as deemed necessary ahead of publication. This will include a final desktop published version of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 and adopted policies map.

Please note that because of size of the appendices for this report they have been split into three parts

Part 1: Appendices 1-4

Part 2: Appendix 5

Part 3: Appendices 6-10

Which will be published as separate supplements.

The Head of Planning Services had submitted a report to request that Cabinet  recommends the adoption of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 to Council.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery, spoke to the report by first thanking  officers, with particular reference to those in the Planning Team,  for their work over the last 4 years in getting the plan to its current stage. He noted that the Planning Inspector had also taken time at the end of the hearings to  thank officers  for the excellent and detailed presentation of evidence and knowledge they had brought to the process which was a tribute to all those involved.

He went on to table an additional recommendation to those before Cabinet, as follows:

Recommend that Council NOTES that, as previously outlined in earlier discussions of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 in Scrutiny, Cabinet and Full Council, a timetable for the next Local Plan which is aligned to the latest Oxfordshire Plan 2050 timetable and co-ordinated with the Local Plan timetables of other District Councils in Oxfordshire will be brought to Cabinet in July 2020 – and Scrutiny as required – as part of the updated Local Development Scheme.

As the wording indicated, this would serve to reinforce what had been said on previous occasions and would facilitate more effective joint working on Local Plan issues than hitherto.

The Chair added her thanks to all those involved for this very significant piece of work.

Cabinet resolved to:

1.       Recommend that Council agrees to adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036 and associated updates to the policies map; and recommend

That Council resolves to:

1.       Adopt the Oxford Local Plan 2036 (set out at Appendix 1 to this report), which incorporates the Inspectors’ Main Modifications (set out at Appendix 3 to this report) and the City Council’s Additional Modifications (set out at Appendix 4 to this report) as part of the statutory development plan for the area as listed in Appendix 6;

2.       Adopt the updates to the Oxford City Adopted Policies Map in line with the Oxford Local Plan 2036 set out at Appendix 5 to this report;

3.       Authorise the Head of Planning Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, to finalise the necessary documents to support adoption including the Adoption Statement (draft as Appendix 7) and Sustainability Statement (draft as Appendix 8) and to make such minor editorial corrections to the adopted Local Plan (Appendix 1) and Policies Map (Appendix 5) as deemed necessary ahead of publication. This will include a final desktop published version of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 and adopted policies map; and

4. Notethat, as previously outlined in earlier discussions of the Oxford Local Plan 2036 in Scrutiny, Cabinet and Full Council, a timetable for the next Local Plan which is aligned to the latest Oxfordshire Plan 2050 timetable and co-ordinated with the Local Plan timetables of other District Councils in Oxfordshire will be brought to Cabinet in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7

At its meeting on 08 June , Cabinet will consider a report on the Adoption of the Local Plan 2036. This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the report and make such recommendations to the Cabinet as it wishes. Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, and Sarah Harrison, Team Leader, Planning Policy have been invited to attend for this item.

Please note that because of the size of the documentation associated with this item, its delivery via ‘Mod Gov’ will be in two parts. The first with this agenda, the second via a supplement.  Please note also that Members will receive a hard copy of all the Local Plan documentation early next week.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery, introduced the report noting that there was no option, at this late stage, for the Committee, Cabinet or Council to make amendments to the plan. The plan had been some 4 years in the making and he thanked officers for their significant contribution to it over that time. He said officers were liaising closely with the County’s other authorities to bring the timescales for all of Oxfordshire’s local plans into line as far as possible. This would be particularly valuable in the future in relation cross-county discussion of housing numbers. 

The Committee considered a suggestion to make a recommendation that would require a timetable for the next Local Plan, which is aligned to the latest Oxfordshire Plan 2050 timetable, to be brought to Cabinet in July 2020 with a view to urgently addressing the recent challenges presented by the Climate Emergency, in particular the recommendations presented by the Climate Emergency Review Group and the intent to 'build back better' post-COVID-19.

 Cllr Hollingsworth said that the Forward Plan already included a new Local Development Scheme to go to Cabinet in July, which as set out in the introduction, would seek to align to the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 timescales. He explained that he would not be able to commend such a recommendation to Cabinet as the second part of the recommendation implies that the current Local Plan does not take account of issues like Climate Change, which was not the case although it was acknowledged that some would have liked it to go further. Councillor Hollingsworth and officers advised against making such a recommendation at this point, not least because of  forthcoming Government White Papers on Planning.  It was noted that if Scrutiny did not wish to make such a recommendation to Cabinet, Councillors could  put such a recommendation to Full Council.

Officers answered several questions on the plan. This included clarification around the removal of Policy E3 was due to the Inspectors view that it made distinctions on the basis of the nature of the applicant that was not in accordance with national policy.  Officers also explained why the increased capacity for the City to meet its housing need did not result in a reduction of neighbouring authorities’ unmet need allocations. 

The Committee Clerk drew attention to a number of detailed corrections to Appendix 1 to which the Committee had been alerted before the meeting  and which had since been published on the Council’s website.