The District Council’s Lowlands Area Planning Sub-Committee resolved to grant outline planning permission for 126 houses on land off the Burford Road, Minster Lovell, close to Witney (click to view the plan).

Strutt & Parker acted for the land owner in managing the entire planning application process.

In our view, there are three reasons why we achieved a successful outcome:

• We advanced the case for the site through the Local Plan process. After achieving an initial allocation for 85 dwellings, we persuaded the Council to increase the figure to around 125 by highlighting that a higher level of development would make a useful contribution towards meeting identified housing needs in the district. The Local Plan Inspector confirmed the position in January 2018.
• Although an outline scheme, the application included a well-designed illustrative layout, which compliments the existing scale and pattern of the built-up area. It also included landscape planting to mitigate visual impact, good areas of open space and generous separation distances to adjoining residential properties.
• It was important to emphasise the benefits of the scheme to Members of the Planning Committee. These included contributions towards improving village facilities, the local bus service along with 40% affordable housing (albeit the overall S.106 package is relatively low at about £7,000 per dwelling).

The site will be marketed by our Development Team shortly, to register your initial interest please contact Richard Foxon.

For further details on the scheme, or for general planning and development advice, please do not hesitate to contact the Oxford Team.