Sir, Last month, it was announced in a low-key way that the Oxfordshire Growth Board plans to lead a county-wide review of the Oxford Green Belt. I understand that this plan has been agreed in the hope that it might release land from the Green Belt for development.

The Green Belt is precious to our communities and any removal of land should only be done if the land can be clearly shown to no longer meet the five tenets of the Green Belt:

  • To check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas
  • To prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another
  • To assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment
  • To preserve the setting and special character of historic towns
  • To assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.

The Green Belt is a necessary constraint to building, not a bank of land to tap into when a Local Plan gets tricky.

Unless this review is truly independent, inappropriate decisions will be made. For example, all 18 sites earmarked in the Vale of White Horse’s plan can be shown to still meet at least one of the five conditions of the Green Belt and therefore should not be included in the plan.

  • I, therefore, call on the board to ensure:
  •  All Green Belt building proposed in draft Local Plans should be removed or halted until this review is complete
  •  The review be carried out by a truly independent body that has no vested interested in promoting development
  •  An accompanying full infrastructure plan be completed as a matter of urgency to show that any development is sustainable
  •  This review be done in as consultative way as possible. People deserve to have their say on every detail of this review and their voices should carry significant weight
  •  Any meeting of the board on this issue be public to allow residents full transparency in the decisions being made l The board considers where new garden cities may be built.

Layla Moran

Parliamentary candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon