Leader’s Report to Council – 12 December 2024
I was joined in the bathroom this morning by the Minister for Housing who was telling the Today Programme that less than a third of the country is covered by an up to date Local Plan and he urged councils to move quickly to produce theirs . We are in this respect almost a model local authority. Earlier this week we submitted our new Joint Local Plan for inspection, a local plan which addresses our priority to provide housing and infrastructure to meet local need.
The same minister has also just published his decision to give the go-ahead to HIF1. This is an essential piece of infrastructure supporting the JLP as well as those existing residents of Didcot who, during the recent floods, had to drive to Wallingford to find a bridge over the River Thames which was not closed.
The report said “It would also facilitate the delivery of a significant quantum of much needed affordable housing” and that the Culham site “with employment and housing co-located, is an exemplar sustainable housing development”.
It went on to say that “Far from creating a more car dependant lifestyle… the Scheme positively embraces sustainable transport and active travel.”
We are expecting the publication of a White Paper on local government reorganisation. At the invitation of the Leader of Swindon Borough Council, I joined other council leaders from Oxfordshire and Berkshire to discuss the potential shape of any new Combined Authority, and specifically whether Swindon should be included in any submission made by us. After listening to the arguments I have written to the participants to say that I do not support this idea. This is for two main reasons: geography and economy. I do not think that people in Oxfordshire share an identity with those of Swindon which sees itself very much as the Gateway to the West Country. In terms of the economy, as the only participant who travelled to the meeting by public transport (for reasons of geography, public transport links from the rest of the county are limited) I was able to see for myself the scale of urban regeneration required in Swindon town centre. This is at odds with the position of both Oxfordshire and Berkshire in the current economic cycle.
I have reiterated my position that the best course for any future Combined Authority involving South Oxfordshire is to align with either the existing Integrated Care Board area (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire) or the Thames Valley Police area (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire).
It has been heavily ‘trailed’ via well-placed sources that the government will most likely insist that the councils which sit within these Combined Authorities should be Unitary Councils. It has long been our position that, should we be required to move towards a Unitary then we would favour one which is small enough to be responsive to local need, centred around the existing South and Vale areas. Anyone who has used FixMyStreet knows how distant and unresponsive County Council services can be and County Council meetings often spend great swathes of time discussing specific traffic lights or junctions in the city of Oxford. It would be bizarre for a devolution process to result in local democratic decision making being more centralised, a key reason why we do not favour a countywide Unitary model for Oxfordshire.
Finally, I would like to thank all of those councillors and officers who have been helping residents to cope with the aftermath of the recent storms. Yesterday a group of us met with residents in my ward who had been flooded and we were joined by an officer who had given up his evening to help them to understand what was being done by the complex web of agencies involved in finding a solution and the commitment of the District Council to play its part.
Cllr David Rouane, Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council
Thursday 12 December 2024
