All comments on the submission document will be sent to the formal examiner. Here is some background information.
Headington Neighbourhood Forum has been preparing a Neighbourhood Plan for the Headington Neighbourhood Area (designated in April 2014). It is intended that the Neighbourhood Plan will be used to guide future development and manage the change alongside Oxford’s Local Plan.
The previous consultation stages were organised and managed by the Headington Neighbourhood Forum. The Forum has taken account of comments raised at each consultation stage in drafting the policies in the plan. The Consultation Statement, which has been produced by the Headington Neighbourhood Forum, is available on the City Council’s website: www.oxford.gov.uk/headingtonplan
The next stage of the project is the Submission Document, which includes the Headington Neighbourhood Forum’s proposed wording for their Neighbourhood Plan. This consultation stage is managed and organised by the City Council.
The Submission Document has been published for consultation from: Friday 26th August to Friday 7th October
The Neighbourhood Plan documents and all other supporting information are available to view on the City Council’s website: www.oxford.gov.uk/headingtonplan. The documents are also available to view at the City Council’s main offices in St. Aldate’s, Monday to Friday between 09.00 and 16.30 and in Headington Library.
All comments should be submitted on a Comment Form which is available (and can be completed electronically) from the website. Paper copies are available at Oxford City Council Offices in St. Aldate’s and in Headington Library.
All comments must be received at the City Council’s offices by 4pm on Friday 7th October 2016
Comments made during the consultation period will be collated and sent to an independent examiner. The independent examiner will have regard to any relevant comments when examining the document.
It is important that comments in support of the plan are sent in as well as objections to ensure that the examiner gets a completely balanced picture of people’s views.
Please contact us if you require any further help or information.
I support the Headington Neighbourhood Plan.
The Green Spaces aims and policies, as well as the proposed Ideas are particularly important to me and other local people.
It is very important to retain ALL Headington’s green space.
I particularly support the policies designed to protect our green spaces – and particularly our SSSIs, Local Wildlife Sites and Local Nature Reserves especially the Lye Valley – from development and from the effects of development.
The aim of increasing Headington’s biodiversity is excellent.
I support the aim to preserve Headington’s special character as an Urban Village in its green setting, together with its views into and out of the area.
More work should be done to survey and record wildlife on green spaces which have not yet been thoroughly surveyed. Lack of survey data makes them vulnerable to development.
All existing allotment sites must be retained, Ingle Close brought back into use and new allotment sites created to meet the needs of a growing population. Allotments are the best habitat for wildlife in cities, as exemplified by Town Furze Allotments, the ‘bread basket’ for the invertebrates and vertebrates of the Lye Valley.
In respect of Policy GSP4 I ask than any mature on-street trees which are removed as a result of road widening or development should be replaced in the ratio of 4:1 (4 young trees: 1 mature tree) on-street within the HNP area.
There should be a moratorium on any more development in Headington until the traffic issues have been resolved.
The HNP gives insufficient weight to the effects of over development in Headington which causes flooding in Florence Park and Cowley.
Ideas
I approve the Ideas included under Green Spaces and Amenities and would ask the Council’s support for the Vision for the Valley project to restore the rarest habitat in all England – the Lye Valley tufa-forming valley-head spring fen.
Windmill Road: the restoration of the green space here should read ‘at the junction of Windmill Road and Old Road’ not Latimer Road .
Thanks Paul, have you sent your comments through to the Planning Dept? I would like to see local planning policies specific to Headington as jobs are growing much faster than housing or infrastructure
It is immensely important to retain all of Headington’s current green spaces. With the growth happening in Headington it is of the utmost importance that the parks and trees are upkept throughout it and not neglected. When trees are chopped down to make way for roads etc, more need to be planted in their place, and the current spaces we have and love (Bury Knowle, the rec on Margeret Road, South Park, Lye Valley) should be protected from development. This would be for the good of not only the wildlife but also the people of Headington.
Thanks Hanna, I hope you have sent your comments through to the Planning Dept. The replacement of trees is an important issue for us, and also consideration of the type of trees that are planted – there is good evidence now from a local researcher at the University that some types of trees both thrive in traffic congested areas and help to absorb the pollution, and we hope to work more closely with him in the future