Achievements like the Oxford Green Belt and careful rural planning to maintain local character don't just happen they take decades of campaigning, careful organisation and reasoned argument
The reason we were able to achieve these things? We were armed with a clear and compelling vision, in the form of Sir Patrick Abercrombie’s manifesto. This vision remains as our guiding principle.
We think:
Better planning will reinvigorate towns and cities, and local people should be able to take an active role in planning our energy and transport infrastructure.
New life in the countryside will emerge through affordable housing, transport, vital services and new business shaped by rural communities themselves.
Our landscapes should incorporate wilderness, woodlands and wetlands, encouraging wildlife and allowing nature to become a barrier to climate change. Urban green spaces will link people in cities to our finest landscapes using Green Belts and hedgerows as wildlife corridors.
Green energy should be in harmony with the landscape to benefit local communities and minimise damage to the environment. Buildings should be energy efficient and have close to zero-carbon emissions. And the orange glare of light pollution needs attention.
Local food production will see farmers thrive and provide healthy, fresh and seasonal food for us all. Farmland will be recognised as far too valuable to build on, for its beauty as well as its productivity, and we will get close to self-sufficiency in food, hugely reducing food miles.
We want to change attitudes so that beauty, tranquillity, green spaces and local character will be valued and nurtured, making quality of life and wellbeing as important as financial prosperity and economic growth.
Please join us and stand up for Oxfordshire with us!