New houses are rising out of field that was used for horses. The houses of Virginia Way, that marked the southern-most border of Abingdon for thirty years, are no longer the border.
One row of houses are nearly built. Another row of houses are growing behind them.
Hester attended 2 more sessions of the Local Plan Examination – one on the “Five-year housing supply” and one on infrastructure issues. The key points were:
1 In order to approve the Plan, the Inspector has to be satisfied that it will genuinely meet what is known as the “Objectively Assessed Need” (OAN) for housing in the area over the next 5 years. There are some people who challenge the OAN figures for this area, but the Inspector has to work with the ones that have been laid down.
2 Our area has been identified as nationally significant for economic growth – with very ambitious plans for new jobs in the “Science Vale” area (Culham, Milton Park, Harwell etc) so we are required to show that there will be adequate housing for all these new people. There was a debate as to whether job growth was really likely to be as fast as predicted, but there was a certain amount of “chicken and egg” to the discussion – employers report that it is difficult to recruit here because suitably-priced housing is in short supply… Interestingly, at the sessions I attended, there was little mention of the Vale having to help Oxford City meet their housing needs.
3 Both the Vale and the developers were adamant that if the Plan is approved, the houses on the various sites can be delivered in the required timescales, but some of those present were doubtful, largely because of the cumulative effect of all the sites on for example the ability of the Vale to process planning applications and of the builders to obtain manpower and materials.
4 The infrastructure discussion was depressing from an Abingdon perspective. The good news is that the plans for the two North Abingdon sites include provision for a Primary School and a “Local Centre” (which presumably could be a Community Centre, Health Centre or whatever is deemed necessary) although I did not hear a date for those. There is also reasonable provision for footpaths, cycle paths and bus stops. However, house building is scheduled to start in 2018 with about 500 due to be built by 2021: however that is the earliest date mentioned for the Lodge Hill interchange and other considerably later dates were also mentioned. Since building on the Radley and Kennington developments will be going on at the same time, that does not bode well for traffic in the next few years.
5 While it does seem pretty certain that the new slip roads will be built – eventually – other proposed improvements to the A34 in this area (widening, addition of a bus lane etc) sound unlikely, largely because the County Council favour an alternative approach involving a new road from the Didcot northern ringroad to Culham – including a new river crossing. They believe that, as well as linking up the key Science Vale sites it will also reduce traffic using the A34 north bound by providing a link from Milton interchange to Culham and places to the East of Oxford. Since presumably this will be largely funded by Science Vale and Local Enterprise Plan money there is a perception that it is more achievable than the A34 improvements.
At present the “North Abingdon” sites are actually in Sunningwell and Radley parishes, but the plan is for the boundary to be moved so they are in Abingdon.
The lights of the 200 meter high chimney at Didcot Power Station can be seen reflected in the River Thames at Abingdon.
A lady, I knew, approached while I was taking the picture, to say ‘Unlucky Didcot’. Her father worked there as part of the initial crew, and over the years she could remember other accidents, during the building of the power station, and since. Then just last year the woodern cooling towers, for the new gas fired power station, caught fire. Yesterday part of the concrete and steel boiler house, being prepared for demolition, collapsed, tragically killing one person. Three others are missing.
There have flyers about a new Community School opening in North Abingdon. I do not know whether it has any relation to the new primary school in the draft local plan. The proposed Opening Date is September 2017.
Information and Survey at northabingdoncs.com.
Also thanks to Hester for the following written a few days ago …
I attended Day 3 of the Inspector’s Stage 2 Examination of the Vale of White Horse Local Plan on Thursday to hear the discussion on the proposed development sites around Abingdon. It was an interesting experience: I had thought it might be very legalistic and boring in places, but this was not the case – largely due to the fact that the Inspector, Malcolm Rivett, had a sense of humour and handed the proceedings with a light and friendly manner. It was billed as a “round-table” discussion, but there were around 30 people at the table (representing various local councils, also the Council for the Protection of Rural England, other interest groups and the various developers) so it needed careful management. There were probably around 20 observers.
The previous day’s discussions had been about the Green Belt: it appears that this was quite contentious as the Vale, County and City Councils all have their own take on it. No doubt we will hear more of this when the Inspector makes his report. Most of Thursday morning was taken up by discussion of the proposals for East Hanney, Radley and Kennington, all of which are being strongly opposed by their Parish Councils and by groups concerned with the Green Belt and the environment. I had to leave before the discussions on the two North Abingdon sites (along Dunmore Road and part of Twelve Acre Drive) but I am told that the main concerns raised were over transport and air quality. These sites are currently in the Sunningwell and Radley parishes but would probably be moved into Abingdon if they go ahead: as I understand it Abingdon Town Council is not opposing them, so were not present.
One particularly interesting area of discussion was the cumulative effect of all the individual proposals in the area just to the North of Abingdon – not just those under discussion at present, but also the upgrades to the Lodge Hill interchange and ideas which have been mooted by the County Council in relation to a park and ride and possibly a lorry stopover area at Lodge Hill. Concerns were expressed not just about the effects on transport and the environment, but also on the “deliverability” of all the proposals within the specified 5 years: someone wondered whether there would be sufficient building materials and skilled labour to build that number of houses in this area in that time. These are key issues for the Inspector and will presumably be discussed in more detail at the sessions on 16 – 18 February.