CPRE Oxfordshire Urges Full Review of Oxford City Local Plan 2042

CPRE Oxfordshire has responded to Oxford City Council’s Local Plan 2042 consultation, warning that the draft plan requires significant revision before progressing to the next stage.

Our submission highlights serious concerns over the treatment of green spaces, housing numbers, and the consultation process itself, which is summarised below. You can see our full response on the 2025 Consultation Responses section of the Resources page of our website.

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Green Spaces and Nature Recovery
One of our strongest criticisms is that the Plan fails to identify or map Oxford’s green and blue infrastructure, despite the existence of the Green Infrastructure Report (2022) and the findings from the recent Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) consultation. We argue that without this, the consultation is fundamentally flawed.

We are calling for all green spaces to be protected, including recreational areas, with no hierarchy of importance. Oxford’s Local Plan must fully integrate the findings of the LNRS, either through an additional consultation stage or by including clear commitments to follow its guidance once published.

Housing Numbers
The draft plan does not provide the detailed housing numbers—both overall and site-specific—needed to enable constructive comment. Without this information, meaningful cooperation with district councils and the public is impossible. We urge the council to add an extra consultation stage before moving forward.

Stronger Wording Needed
While supportive of many aspects of the Plan, its language is too weak to ensure delivery. Terms such as “should” and “where possible” should be replaced with stronger requirements like “must” and “require” to give policies real weight.

Infrastructure Before Development
We call for unambiguous conditions to guarantee that no new developments are occupied before essential infrastructure and services are in place, strengthening safeguards against premature development.

Concerns Over the Consultation Process
We are disappointed at the poor promotion of the consultation events: some meetings had extremely low attendance—including sessions attended only by CPRE members. There was also no consultation event in Headington, an area expected to face significant development pressures.

We believe it would be unacceptable for the Plan to proceed directly to the Regulation 19 consultation stage later this year, which limits the scope for public comment. Instead, we urge Oxford City Council to follow the example of West Oxfordshire District Council by holding an additional Preferred Spatial Options consultation.

CPRE Oxfordshire welcomes further discussion with the council.