BYG Public Meetings in Begbroke & Yarnton: We need funds!
The Examination in Public Hearings presents us with our last substantial chance to save our Green Belt.
We have organised two public meetings to outline what happens next and, to be honest, to request donations to a fighting fund.
The meetings are:
Begbroke Village Hall: Thursday 10 January 2019 at 7.30 pm.
Yarnton Village Hall: Friday 11 January 2019 at 6.30 pm.
Our villages are under threat due to Cherwell District Council’s (CDC) plans for accommodating Oxford City’s alleged ‘unmet housing needs’:
2,385 new houses on the Green Belt between Begbroke and Yarnton to merge our villages and make them part of a “Greater Kidlington”
Closure of Sandy Lane
2,015 new houses in Woodstock, Cutteslowe, Kidlington and North Oxford to place even greater strain on our already congested roads
Remember, these houses are not for local people but are intended to meet an unmet housing need of Oxford City. New evidence shows the housing numbers are too high.
CDC’s plans will be reviewed by a Planning Inspector at a full Examination in Public (EiP). This will take place on the 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th of February at CDC’s offices in Banbury. The public can attend.
The full EiP follows a one-day preliminary hearing held in September 2018. At this hearing, the developers and landowners of the sites, along with CDC, were all represented by barristers, including several QCs. It is clear we also need legal and planning experts to represent us at the EiP if our strong, evidenced-based case is to be seriously considered. BYG’s transport expert whom we employed to submit a report as part of BYG’s response to CDC’s 2017 consultation, will be representing us at the EiP on traffic and congestion issues. To strengthen our cause further, we also urgently need legal expertise to argue our case against the destruction of the Green Belt around our two villages that will result in the loss of their distinct identity and formation of a new northern suburb of Oxford.
We still have £5,000 of the £15,000 that you all kindly donated last time we asked for your financial support, but we will need to triple that to pay for legal representation, so we are asking again for your help.
Please come to our meetings listed above so that you can hear more details and discuss our strategy for the EiP. This could be the last chance we have to stop CDC’s plans and to save our villages. Please contribute again to our fighting fund to pay for legal representation at the EiP.
Please do give what you can either at the meetings or direct to the BYG bank account: Begbroke & Yarnton Greenbelt Campaign, Lloyds a/c no. 22765768, sort code 30-99-08.
Together we can make a difference and save our villages.
Thank you. - BYG Committee