South Oxfordshire 13,500 new homes plan legal action launched

Campaigners against a plan to build 13,500 homes in South Oxfordshire have launched legal action to take the proposals to the High Court.

A coalition of Liberal Democrat and Green councillors at South Oxfordshire District Council approved the area's Local Plan in December.

Raising concerns over the impact on the environment, the group Bioabundance has now begun legal action.

The authority said it had received the challenge but refused to comment.

Bioabundance director and South Oxfordshire councillor Sue Roberts, who represents the South Oxfordshire Residents Team party, said the plan "grossly over provides for housing".

She added the legal case was the "last chance to put our environment before housebuilder profit".

"Un-needed housing is no rationale for worsening climate breakdown and the collapse of the natural world," she said.

South Oxfordshire's Local Plan - a blueprint for development up until 2035 - has cost more than £3.6m.

It proposes building thousands of homes on green and brown belt sites, including Grenoble Road, Culham and Chalgrove Airfield.

Campaigners have said councillors had been "under pressure" to accept the plan after the government intervened.

The council had wanted to scrap it due to the amount of homes proposed and green belt development.

However, when the authority approved the plans last year, cabinet member for planning Anne-Marie Simpson said the council was "faced with no real choice but to adopt the plan" due to a "very real possibility of the government removing planning powers from South Oxfordshire if the plan was not adopted".

The council first drafted a Local Plan in 2014 and has conducted about 120 studies and seven public consolations on various versions.

In March last year, communities secretary Robert Jenrick ordered South Oxfordshire to adopt its plans by December or face further government intervention.

The plan earmarks sites for more than 30,000 homes in total, but many houses have already been or are due to be built.

The government said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

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