Consultations
Affordable Housing – report and recommendations of the sub-committee
Click here to read the Report and recommendations of the Affordable Housing Sub-Committee made following the public consultation meeting referred to below.
Affordable Housing – public meeting
A public meeting will be held in the new pavilion at Gallowstree Common
at 7.00 for 7.30 pm on Friday 8 July 2011.
Representatives from the Parish Council and the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) will explain the proposal to classify a small part of the land adjacent to the present housing in Horsepond Road, Gallowstree Common, as a 'Rural Exception Site' and to build six affordable dwellings on that land.
The Council has already decided that it is in favour of some form of affordable housing in the Parish of Kidmore End and has accepted the findings of the ORCC that there is a need for six dwellings to be occupied by those who qualify because of a connection with the parish.
The purposes of the meeting will be:
- to enable parishioners to understand the scope of the proposal
- to examine draft plans for various options on the configuration (which are likely to be the same as those shown in the documents below
- to ask questions and to put forward views.
AGENDA
| 7.00 | Opportunity to look at plans and meet councillors |
| 7.30 | Welcome and introductions Chairman of Parish Council |
| 7.35 | Parish Council Affordable Housing Committee member |
| 7.40 | Anna Kennedy, Rural Housing Enabler, Oxfordshire Rural Community Council |
| 8.00 | Questions |
| 8.30 | Next steps Parish Council Affordable Housing Committee member |
| 8.40 | Close of meeting and thanks Chairman of Parish Council |
Affordable Housing – three illustrations
The three possible options
Affordable Housing/Rural Exception Sites
The Housing Needs Survey commissioned by the Oxfordshire Rural Housing Partnership (ORHP) in Summer 2010 confirmed a modest need from those eligible to apply for affordable housing on rural exception sites in the Parish. The Parish Council agrees with and supports this conclusion but did not approve of the use of any part of the glebe land, currently used in part as a market garden, as a rural exception site.
The District Council and the Highways Department of the County Council have also rejected the site at Butlers Orchard. The land owned by the Phillimore estate at Horsepond Road, Gallowstree Common remains available for use as a rural exception site.
The Parish Council is in discussion with the ORHP as to how best to take matters forward so that all interests are fully and properly taken into account, both in respect of the location and type of new housing (no more than a total of six houses is under consideration) and the future interests, opportunities and concerns of the Parish and all its residents.
The Council will secure that everything is managed in an open and transparent manner so that any decision taken by the Council is based on proper consultation. This process includes obtaining from the ORHP in early Spring an outline sketch of the composition of the buildings on the site and access from the highway. The Council would then anticipate a period for public consultation before it takes a decision whether or not to approve the use of that land as a rural exception site.
19/11/2010 (as amended on 16/12/2010)
Affordable Housing – the 'Housing Needs Survey'
In June 2010, the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) distributed to all households in the Parish of Kidmore End a Register of Interest Survey. Only those in need of affordable housing were invited to complete the survey but every resident was given the opportunity to say whether or not they supported the idea of development on the 'Glebe Land'. Replies were requested by 16 July 2010. A report on the results of the survey, prepared by Anna Kennedy, Rural Housing Enabler, Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, was delivered to the Parish Council in September 2010.
Read the 
ORCC report here.
(Note: this is a large document – nearly 6Mb in size. If you are on a dial-up
or slow broadband connection, it may take several minutes to appear.)
The Parish Council's Affordable Housing Sub-Committee then prepared a 'covering report' detailing its views on the ORCC report, which was considered at the Council's meeting on 29 September 2010.
Read the Affordable Housing Sub-Committee's covering report here.
The work of the Parish Council Housing Needs Questionnaire Sub-Committee
At its meeting on 24 March 2010, the Parish Council asked Councillors Biggs, Knapp and Swift to review an earlier provisional Parish Council decision to send out a questionnaire – the Housing Needs Questionnaire (HNQ) – with a covering letter to parishioners. They were asked to report back with recommendations on the next steps to be taken by the Council.
Interim report
Their interim report, in which they made these recommendations, was considered at the Council's meeting on 21 April 2010.
You can read the KEPC HNQ Sub-Committee (Interim) Report here.
The report refers to, and the councillors reviewed, a number of documents related to the Housing Needs Survey. You can see these KEPC HNS Sub-Committee Report Annexes here. (Note: this is a large document – more than 3Mb in size. If you are on a dial-up or slow broadband connection, please be patient.)
Final report
The final report of the sub-committee was submitted on 11 June 2010 for consideration by the Council at its meeting on 23 June 2010.
You can read the KEPC HNQ Sub-Committee (Final) Report here.
All these documents are in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.
If you don't already have an Adobe Reader, you can download one here.