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A timely decision taking local views into account is needed on Didcot infrastructure 

The Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council will write to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, urging him to take local views into account and to make a swift decision on a planning application for £300million of transport infrastructure in the Didcot area.  

The government intervened after Oxfordshire County Council’s Planning and Regulation Committee resolved to refuse a county council planning application for four road and active travel projects in and around Didcot, known as HIF1. The application will now be considered at a public inquiry by a government-appointed planning inspector.  

At a special Council meeting on 29 August, convened specifically to talk about this issue, South Oxfordshire District Councillors reiterated the importance of local decision making, and requested that the public inquiry respect the views of affected communities in both Didcot and the surrounding villages by including the Council as a party to the inquiry.   

Cllr David Rouane, Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “I’d like to thank members of the public who spoke at the council meeting – people who have given up significant amounts of their own time over several years to campaign for issues important to their communities. It was an unusual meeting in that the issues discussed have a significant impact on the district but are ones over which we have very little control. That’s why we’ll be formally requesting that our district council is made party to the inquiry, so local views are properly represented.” 

The district council will be emphasising to the inquiry how important the HIF1 infrastructure is to the delivery of housing and economic sites in the district’s adopted Local Plan. However, the details are also important, and the council will be reinforcing the need for high quality design throughout as set out in the South Oxfordshire Design Guide and in the Didcot Garden Town Delivery Plan.   

South Oxfordshire has a target to become a net zero district by 2030, which the council will also highlight to the inquiry alongside the need to maximise biodiversity and minimise any harmful impact of the scheme on the district’s natural and historic landscape, including the River Thames. 

The Planning Inspectorate has now written to Oxfordshire County Council confirming that the public inquiry into the application will sit for eight days starting on 5 December. The Planning Inspector will then consider the application along with the evidence submitted at the inquiry and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State who will make the final decision. There is no set timetable for how long that decision will take and South Oxfordshire District Councillors have called on the Secretary of State to ensure there are no delays. 

Note to editors 

The transport infrastructure proposals in question are due to be funded primarily by the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund, also known as HIF. There is more information on the projects on the Oxfordshire County Council website. In summary, the HIF1 scheme involves:  

  • A4130 dualling – linking Valley Park to Didcot Science Bridge. 
  • Didcot Science Bridge – a new bridge across the railway line and the former Didcot A power station site. 
  • Didcot to Culham River Crossing – a new link road and bridge over the River Thames. 
  • Clifton Hampden bypass – a new bypass to re-route traffic away from Clifton Hampden and Burcot.