Salt Cross
There is an application to the High Court for a Judicial Review of the Planning Inspectorate’s amendment of WODC’s Area Action Plan for Salt Cross. We have heard no more about its progress.
West Eynsham
The amendments to the Masterplan were examined by a scrutiny committee of WODC on 8th June. The amendments mostly relate to the addition of two additional sites for possible development. There were excellent addresses to the committee from Ross Macken for EPC and Prof Angie Titchen for the Eynsham environmental groups. There was a rejection of the amendments by the committee, with the Conservative members of the committee voting against this rejection and the LD, Green and Labour members voting for rejection.
The report of the committee will be made to the WODC Executive, which will decide whether to accept these recommendations. This is likely to be in the July meeting (which may well be held in Eynsham) and members of the public will have the opportunity to address the meeting.
The three WODC councillors for Eynsham are hugely supportive of EPC’s attempts to ensure that part of the land in W Eynsham can be turned into a burial ground. We understand that the County Council as landowner is in principle agreed to this, and we hope that we can see this put into action soon.
Executive matters
Alaric Smith, councillor for Bampton, has replaced Cllr Mathew Parkinson in the WODC Executive, primarily with responsibility for customer services, Leisure and Major Projects. He is a great addition to the team, having previously run a major company.
The project to bring the council into modern times is on track. All meetings from committee rooms are now being streamed. The council chamber will follow in the autumn.
Pubs
The Queens Head remains vacant. I hope Admiral Taverns are able to reopen it soon. The Talbot has reopened, the Red Lion has had a facelift, and there is an application for a licence to sell alcohol from the café next to Tescos on the A40. The owners of the Newland sought a change of use from pub to house at the May Lowlands planning meeting – this was rejected by the committee, primarily because WODC policy is designed to discourage pubs being lost by being turned into houses – there was not evidence that the Newlands was unable to be run as a pub. While we currently have lots of pubs, we don’t want owners to be incentivised to let them fail.
Carl Rylett, Andy Goodwin, Dan Levy.