Sir – Isn’t it ironic that the town in Oxfordshire to win a Government Town Centre award last year will not be given the opportunity to extend its town centre to meet the needs of the 65% growth in housing approved by the Local Authority Planners and the district councillors?

Government Policy states that “Local planning authorities should plan positively, to support town centres to generate local employment, promote beneficial competition within and between town centres, and create attractive, diverse places where people want to live, visit and work.” It goes on to say “This positive approach should include seeking to improve the quality of parking in town centres (in line with the National Planning Policy Framework) and, where it is necessary to ensure the vitality of town centres, the quantity too.”

Yet both the Emerging Local Plan and the Emerging Neighbourhood Plan for Wantage have been ignored to recommend permission for a residential retirement home with limited parking to be built in the very centre of Wantage on a site owned by Thames Valley Police. What do we have to do to get planning to work for the good of Wantage?

Geoff Rice
Barnards Way, Wantage
Chairman of Wantage and Grove Campaign Group