Caversfield Parish Council

Working for the village of Caversfield

Planning Application

Cherwell District Council – loss of planning control

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The Parish Council was concerned to read about the Government’s decision to designate Cherwell District Council under Section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 on 15 June 2026.

This means that developers of major planning applications may now choose to submit their applications directly to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) instead of Cherwell District Council.

A briefing note has been written to help explain the implications.

The Council welcomed Calum Miller MP’s letter to the Minister of State for Housing and Planning at MHCLG which he posted on his Facebook page

Dymocks Farm Planning Application – 26/00452/OUT

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The Parish Council considered planning application reference 26/00452/OUT at its meeting on 18 March and has resolved to agree to object to the application on the following grounds:

  • beyond the current boundaries of the village and is contrary to local planning policies, particularly the settlement hierarchy contained in both the current and emerging Local Plans;
  • adverse impact of local services and infrastructure, including power and water supply and the effect on surrounding properties which rely on bore holes;
  • adverse impact on the landscape;
  • does not represent sustainable development;
  • highway safety considerations.

It is also contrary to both CDC and the Parish Council’s Biodiversity and Climate Emergency stance.

The planning application is available on CDC’s planning portal at https://planningregister.cherwell.gov.uk/Planning/Display/26/00452/OUT

More information about Cherwell’s Local Plans can be found on their website at https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/info/83/local-plans

The current, adopted, Local Plan (to 2031) is available on the CDC website at https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/downloads/download/45/adopted-cherwell-local-plan-2011-2031-part-1

The emerging Local Plan, which has been submitted to the Planning Inspector for examination, is available within the Core Documents section of https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/local-plan-review-2042-submission – see the Cherwell Local Plan Review 2042 Proposed Submission (December 2024)

The Village Categorisation information is available on

  • page 246 in the Policy Villages 1 section of the current Plan and
  • pages 24 and 25 in Policy SP 1 of the emerging plan (the Settlement Hierarchy section)

There are also many other policies about sustainable development and infrastructure for consideration.

It is worth noting that a previous application for the site 07/00225/OUT was withdrawn, but much of the Officer Report to the Committee, which can be found in the Supporting Documents section, is relevant to this current application.

Anyone wishing to submit a response can use the points above as a basis for a response, but it is strongly encouraged to write things from a personal perspective as the responses which are a ‘carbon copy’ are likely to carry less weight.

The planning portal deadline for responses to this application is 18 April.  It will be considered at a future CDC Planning Committee in due course.

Planning application regarding discharge of noise management at Bicester Heritage

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The Parish Council has received concerns regarding a planning application to Cherwell District Council about noise issues at Bicester Heritage (24/02229/DISC).

The Council has been informed by the Planning Officer that this was for a discharge of the noise management condition from the planning application (23/01085/F) which covered the wider uses across the site. The Parish Council doesn’t routinely receive these sorts of revisions to applications.

However, the Officer has confirmed that given the number of concerns and objections that have been received, CDC’s Environmental Protection Officer has been consulted and the case will be reviewed.

Unfortunately, by the time the application had been noted, it would not have been possible to convene a Parish Council meeting as the response had to be returned by 26 September.