West Oxfordshire Open Space, Sport and Recreation Study

Overview

West Oxfordshire District Council is in the process of preparing a new Local Plan to guide development in the district up to 2043. In due course, it will replace the current Local Plan 2031 which was formally adopted in September 2018. The updated Local Plan will include significant housing requirements for the district, equating to around 18,000 dwellings between 2025 and 2043. The Local Plan will need to identify substantial areas of land to accommodate the required housing over the lifetime of the Plan so there will be pressure on landscape and heritage assets in the district. To date, there have been four public consultations on the emerging Local Plan, carried out between August 2022 and December 2025 covering the scope of the Plan, vision and objectives, draft policies, spatial strategy and development allocations. The new Local Plan is currently at the Regulation 18 ‘plan preparation’ stage, with the Regulation 19 Draft Local Plan set to be published in June 2026. The West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2043 will be submitted for examination by December 2026. To help inform the publication Draft Plan, the Council wishes to commission a Landscape and Heritage Impact Assessment, to assess the impacts of proposed growth on the district’s landscape and heritage assets, in accordance with paragraphs 135 and 187 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and associated Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) on the Natural Environment.