Report

Conclusions

The response from WING in this document focuses on the necessity to provide infrastructure improvements in Witney if planning permission is given to housing development in North Witney SDA. We have not taken a position in favour or in opposition to housing development. Opinions from parishioners and councillors in WING range from those who are opposed to any further housing to those who accept that North Witney housing is likely to go ahead but who want to ensure that measures are taken to deal with congestion, air pollution and flooding in the town, and provide adequate community infrastructure.

WING will challenge any attempt to proceed with housing without a guarantee that the associated infrastructure improvements are delivered in full.

Decisions that are taken now will affect Witney and the area around it for generations to come. As things stand, Witney suffers from:

• 80% of the planned perimeter road system with just a single bridge over the Windrush,
• severe traffic congestion and delay affecting central areas and through traffic,
• air pollution that creates a health hazard for residents and visitors and that has been passively managed since the establishment of the Air Quality Management Area in 2005. (Pollution levels have been monitored since 2005 and WODC has produced annual reports.)
• a risk of flooding with severe flooding occurring in 2007 and 2020.

These problems could be mitigated by grasping the opportunity to complete and improve the infrastructure in Bridge Street and North Witney. WING believes it is essential to do this, but we are aware of the difficulty in coordinating the actions of a wide range of stakeholders to deliver the whole plan.

• OCC will need to project manage the design and construction of road improvements in the Bridge Street area of Witney,
• WODC and EA will take the lead in flood management and the possibility to use the WEL to control flooding, and
• the housing developer will have to contribute to the construction of the WEL and NDR (either through funding to an OCC scheme or as part of their own construction).

Failure to deliver any of these elements will compromise the success of the plan and therein lies the challenge.

This report is being submitted to WODC Planning to supplement WING’s first objection to planning application 24/00482/OUT, lodged with WODC on 9th April 2024. In our first submission, we set out our main objection headings and undertook to submit reports to detail our concerns and challenges. This second submission fulfils that undertaking.

WING will also use this report to complete consultation with the ten local councils who support our campaign. We will invite each council to provide written responses to our findings. Responses, and any amendments, will then be included in a final version of the WING report. Although WING’s membership is made up of one or two representatives from each council, we believe that adding the consultation responses to our report will strengthen the evidence of local support and give us a strong mandate to meet with stakeholders and influence their decisions. Our intention is to contribute positively to finding and delivering the best possible outcome for the Witney community.