A ROW over building homes on untouched countryside could soon play out in a courtroom.

Earlier this summer, Cherwell District Council approved changes to its Local Plan which means 4,400 homes can now be built on Green Belt land north of Oxford, to help the city meet its unmet housing needs.

But a campaign group called the Cherwell Development Watch Alliance which had spoken against building on the land has now called for a judicial review of the council's Local Plan decision.

A judicial review, also known as a statutory challenge, allows anyone to challenge official decisions through the courts.

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Suzanne McIvor, the chairwoman of the CDWA, said the group believed a Government planning inspector who judged the Local Plan had 'failed' to do a proper job

Mrs McIvor said: "We are alleging that the Inspector did not properly scrutinise all the evidence relating to Oxford City`s unmet housing need.

"Since meeting that need is the purpose of the whole Plan and is Cherwell`s primary justification for taking hundreds of hectares of land out of important Green Belt, our challenge on this ground goes to the very heart of this massive development.”

Oxford Mail:

Suzanne McIvor

The 4,400 homes which the group objects to would be built on parcels of Green Belt land between north Oxford and Kidlington, Begbroke and Yarnton.

A Cherwell District Council spokesman confirmed the council had received papers which could start the process of judicial review.

He said: “We can confirm that an application for a statutory review has been lodged in the Planning Court and served on the council.

He added: "The Partial Review of the Local Plan was extensively consulted on and was the subject of public hearings in 2018 and 2019 where the views of organisations and members of the public were considered by an independently-appointed Government planning inspector. He found the Plan to be sound and his report was accepted by the council. This remains the council’s position.”

A judicial review is an expensive process, with Leigh Day solicitors estimating it can often cost more than £30,000 to bring a claim to court.

The CDWA is a coalition of small residents groups which have objected to the Local Plan at meetings in the past.

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They include Begbroke and Yarnton Green Belt Campaign, golfers' group GreenWayOxon, Harbord Road Area Residents Association, Kidlington Development Watch, and the Woodstock Action Group.

The CDWA also has support from four local parish councils and from Woodstock Town Council.

These groups do not have the finances to pay for a judicial review themselves, so the Cherwell Development Watch Alliance is fundraising on its website.

Mrs McIvor said: “We hope that a judge, independent of the vested interests in this plan will agree with us. Our main concern now is to ensure that we have the funds to follow through on our claim if it passes its first hearing.”

Modifications to Cherwell District Council's partial review of its Local Plan had to be carried out during the examination process after the planning inspector said 410 homes for Oxford commuters could not be built near Woodstock, as this was too far away from the city.

The council agreed the homes should be moved to other sites where new houses are set to be built instead.

Out of the 4,400 homes which are planned for the Green Belt land, half are due to be set aside as affordable housing.

Oxford Mail:

An old map of where the 4,400 homes could be built, including now-deleted plans for homes near Woodstock

Oxford City Council would be given power over who could live in these 2,200 affordable homes after they were built, after a decision taken by Cherwell's chief executive in May to allow for this.

All of the different council districts surrounding Oxford have been asked to build a portion of 15,000 houses to meet Oxford's unmet housing need.

The city has run out of space to build new homes within its own boundaries, and more are needed as there are official predictions that its population is set to grow in the future.

In South Oxfordshire, the new Local Plan has stalled, partly because of a similar debate over building on Green Belt land.

Villages in the countryside south of Oxford oppose new housing estates on their patch, and the council's Lib Dem and Green leaders are object to overdevelopment.

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South Oxfordshire District Council has a deadline of December this year to adopt its Local Plan.

Other judicial review claims have made headlines recently.

The Government faced such a challenge last year over its plan to prorogue parliament for five weeks at a then-crucial point in Brexit decision making.

And Oxfordshire County Council faced a similar situation earlier this year, when a teenage girl backed by a campaign group called the Safe Schools Alliance wanted to contest a council guidebook on how to treat Trans students.

This was later withdrawn after the council scrapped its transgender guidebook.