A HOUSING plan long-delayed by concerns of over development and building in the Oxford green belt will go ahead.

South Oxfordshire District Council accepted its local plan at a meeting tonight.

At the meeting, South Oxfordshire District councillors discussed a motion which was agreed by the cabinet earlier this morning.

Though councillors voted to take the plan forward there was reluctance among many of them to do so.

And there was no other choice on the table, as a letter from the government's housing minister Robert Jenrick told them they legally had to take the plan forward.

The meeting ended with a 'die-in' by Extinction Rebellion activists protesting the plan being passed.

The cabinet motion included the following steps which the council will now take:

  • that the council would continue with its Local Plan, and submit it to government inspectors to make sure it is legal.
  • a timetable to make sure it is all complete by December this year is in place.
  • that the council should write back to Mr Jenrick to make sure £215 million of funding for new roads around Didcot is now paid to Oxfordshire County Council.
  • to find ways for the council to address the climate emergency by ‘enhancing planning policies for environmental standards’

More to follow tomorrow