It has just been announced that West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) will launch a new consultation on the modified Area Action Plan (AAP) for Salt Cross Garden Village. Eynsham Parish Council is urging residents to contribute to the consultation and help us demand critical net zero targets be re-instated into the AAP.
The modifications to the AAP were recommended by the Planning Inspectorate. These remove many key requirements around achieving net zero. This undermines the original AAP (which positioned SCGV as an ‘exemplar’ development), WODC’s policy concerning new developments/net zero targets and contravenes Garden City principles.
Not only will this new AAP, if approved, allow developers to avoid building to the standards required to meet the Government’s ambitious targets around net zero, it will serve as a low benchmark for developments nationwide. Continuing to build new homes that make little to no provision for the climate emergency will make it impossible for the UK to reduce our carbon footprint and further damage our fast-disappearing environment, biodiversity and ecosystem.
Eynsham Parish Council and other local stakeholders are preparing a response to the consultation and we urge any residents who also want the Garden Village to be built to the highest possible standard to follow suit. The consultation will run until 4 November and can be contributed to via the WODC website.
The Parish Council has also written to local MP Robert Courts to request his support and we will, along with EPIC and GreenTEA, be issuing a press release to local and national media to raise awareness. Both of these documents will be shared on this website in due course.
We thank everyone who is moved to support us in this action and help demand more effort be made by new developments to meet the climate crisis, both locally and nationally.