VIEWS will soon be sought on a plan that could shape Oxfordshire’s future and improve infrastructure until 2050.

The Oxfordshire Plan 2050 seeks to ensure the county’s councils look ahead for what will be required in the future to ensure a ‘better quality of life for all’.

It is hoped it will also preserve the ‘integrity and richness of the county’s historic character and natural environment’.

James Mills is the chairman of the Oxfordshire Plan Member Sub-Group and the leader of West Oxfordshire District Council.

He said: “Public accountability is at the heart of the Oxfordshire Plan. Fellow elected representatives in cabinets and executives across all the authorities will get chance to view and approve the document before it goes to the public.

“This is the start of the conversation and we want to ensure people are involved at the earliest opportunity to produce the best possible plan.”

The need for the plan was included in the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal, which was signed by Oxfordshire councils and former housing minister Dominic Raab in March 2018.

Oxfordshire councils’ Local Plans are already in place or nearing completion to outline development until 2031, 2034 or 2036 respectively. But the Oxfordshire Plan to 2050 ‘will be based on a new evidence base produced specifically for the project. Future Local Plans will sit within the framework defined by the Oxfordshire Plan.’

By 2050, the plan hopes the county’s residents will be ‘living in sustainable communities with a high quality of life and a strong sense of belonging.’

Its vision continues: “Existing and new communities are well integrated, attractive and desirable places to live; their design and layouts facilitate healthy lifestyles and sustainable travel options.”

Some of the details which the county will be heavily influenced by, including the Oxford-Cambridge expressway, are still unconfirmed.

Peter Jay, of Need Not Greed Oxfordshire, said: “We welcome any opportunity that the new spatial plan can introduce to deliver planning that gives meaningful consideration to residents’ views and which is locally accountable, not dictated by strategies such as the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor.”

He added: “Since 2010 national planning policy has effectively displaced both sound planning principles and local democratic control over development in favour of a free-for-all for developers, unrelated to objectively assessed housing need, let alone other criteria of good planning. This needs to be reversed.”

Meetings in each Oxfordshire district will be held to discuss the plan but dates have yet to be confirmed. Oxford City Council’s executive board will be asked to approve the plan next Tuesday.

For more information on the plan, visit oxfordshireplan.org