Local Plan amendments recognise water and sewerage constraints
In December last year I posted this article about Oxford City’s Local Plan 2036, listing the possible development sites (“Sites”) in the OX3 area. The formal consultation on the Plan was then in progress; things have now reached the stage when the Plan has been formally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration.
Following the consultation the City Council has made some changes to the Plan documents which it hopes will remove some possible problems which the Inspector might otherwise have picked on. For many of the Sites Thames Water has warned there could be problems with water and sewerage capacity. Typically, the Plan has been amended to include something like this in the descriptive part of the site policy:
[Both the] Water supply network capacity [and the sewerage network capacity] in this area is unlikely to be able to support the demand anticipated from this development. Investigations by Thames Water, funded by the applicant, will be necessary to determine whether upgrades to the water supply capacity [ or sewerage network] are required. Up to three years lead in time could be required to undertake any such works.
… and this in the Policy itself:
Development must not lead to water supply [and sewerage network] problems for existing or new users. Applicants will be required to demonstrate that there is adequate water supply capacity both on and off the site to serve the development and that it would not lead to problems for existing or new users.
Not all these changes mention water and sewerage. I think the changes will generally be welcomed by people living in areas already known to have problems with either or both these services.
These and all the other main changes are set out in the document “CSD10 Schedule of Proposed Main Modifications” which is available on the Council’s website.
