HBAG: 22nd October, 2022
Many of you will have received a leaflet through your door from Summix promoting the Harrington site – a new town development of 6,500 houses plus business accommodation between Great Haseley and the M40 south of J7.
In May, South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) in partnership with Vale of White Horse Council began the process of working on the 2041 Local Plan for our wider area. This consultation was highly strategic and focused on the process of building the details of that plan.
Over the next 2 years, SODC will assess the best approach for new housing. This will include a request for possible sites for development and we expect that hundreds of sites will come forward.
Summix, the promoters of the Harrington site, are seeking to build support for their new town proposal and are holding meetings over the coming weeks (as advertised in their leaflets).
It is important to reassure supporters that
- The Harrington proposal will be just one amongst a hundred or so submissions.
- No decision on future new housing allocation is imminent
- No planning applications are live
- It is extremely early in the Council’s next phase of identifying future housing need.
The view of HBAG is that these public meetings scheduled by consultants appointed by the developers are both mistimed and unhelpful.
Summix will undoubtedly claim that the have gone to great lengths to consult with the local communities to improve their credibility with SODC to help them onto the site short list.
We would advise our supporters to be careful about attending these meetings in that Summix will claim that they will have had direct contact with XXXX people from the local communities, even if a large percentage of those people had expressed their strong opposition to their proposal.
It may instead make more sense to log displeasure with the Harrington site as a concept, via a brief email with the consultant promoting the site (josephbaum@mpc.email).
As ever, we are very happy to answer any individual questions that you might have and hope that this helps clarify the position at this time.
Haseley Brook Action Group: 22 October 2022
