Can Thame Cope With An Additional 600 New Homes?
Thame Town Council is hosting a public meeting tonight at St Mary’s Church, Thame. The meeting will start at 7:30pm, and all residents and business of Thame are invited.
The Local Planning Authority for Thame, South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC), has recently launched a consultation on the Preferred Options for the New Local Plan 2032.
Those preferred options include a suggestion of 600 additional new houses for Thame, along with 1500 square metres (net sales area) of additional convenience/food retail space, and an extra 2.5 hectares of employment land, on top of all that is already provided in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, as adopted in 2013. And a nearby reservoir.
All of that will require a new Thame Neighbourhood Plan to be adopted by mid-2018, (and all that entails), as there is no current legal process to amend the existing one.
At the same time, the Vale of Aylesbury is consulting on it Local Plan proposals (VALP) which include an additional around 5,500 new dwellings in and near Haddenham, partly given its proximity to the local service centre of Thame.
The Town Council will be responding to both consultations (by the SODC deadline of 4:30pm on Friday 19 August 2016 and the VALP deadline of Monday 5 September 2016).
This Public Meeting has been called for a variety of reasons, including;
• To provide additional specific information for the residents and businesses of Thame on what is being suggested
• To encourage all residents and businesses of Thame to respond to either or both consultations
• To help inform the consultation responses that the Town Council will itself make, as the elected body, on behalf of the town.
It is the Town Council’s initial view that the adopted Thame Neighbourhood Plan already provides all that is needed to ensure Thame’s continuing vibrancy and vitality. Even if the defined additional needs are real, there are more appropriate (and sustainable) places for their delivery in South Oxfordshire. But the Town Council is prepared to be persuaded otherwise.
Can Thame cope with what is being proposed?
Would some or all of what is being proposed be of benefit?
The Town Council is keen to hear as many people’s views as possible, and are sure that the Planning Authorities are also keen to hear those views.
