Vale Local Plan

Keen followers and fans of AVDC's planning department will be aware that the last Vale of Aylesbury's 'Local Plan', submitted about three or four years ago, was rejected as inadequate by the relevant Government authority.

In the absence of such a plan, Haddenham Parish Council necessarily took the decision to construct a Neighbourhood Plan for the village without an overall strategic framework in which it should have sat, in the hope that this would offer Haddenham some protection from ad hoc and opportunistic development.

Recent challenges by Lightwood Strategic, in respect of their designs on Aston Road, have caused a bit of a dent in our planning armour, but we continue to hope that the Secretary of State will uphold the principles and ideals of Localism, giving us a say in how our village develops, rather than being dictated to by commercial interests.

Anyway ...

AVDC is trying a second stab at constructing a Local Plan for the Vale, and recently invited folk to offer comments through the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP) 'Issues and Options' consultation, which ran from October-December 2015.

It has now published a summary of the responses that it received. The summary document can be found on the AVDC webpage by clicking here and then choosing the 'Issues & Options' icon

The District Council has sifted through the comments and duplicate responses and those relating to the call for sites have been separated out. The total number of respondents was 771. This remarkably modest number might reflect a degree of cynicism by Vale residents that AVDC planners are genuinely interested in our views and opinions — who knows?

However AVDC is keen to point out that this still amounts to 4,480 individual responses to the questions and other responses.

AVDC is now analysing the responses that it received, and a report will also be published on its website shortly.

The District Council wishes to reassure us that the responses will inform the development of a draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan which will be consulted on later this year.

There you have it ... consider yourself reassured.