Cabinet Member: Travel & Development Strategy

Forward Plan Ref: 2021/221

Contact: Timothy Mann, Senior Project Manager, Tel 07922 848408

Report by Director of Growth & Economy (CA13).

The information in this case is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories:

3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Annex C containing exempt information under the above paragraph is attached.

To seek approval of the amendment to grant determination agreement (GDA) with Homes England and delegation to officers and to note:

-          progress made and changes to the scheme programme; and

-          requirement for CPO process to follow GDA changes.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

a)            Authorise the Corporate Director Environment and Place, in consultation with the Director of Law & Governance, Director of Finance, Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy and Cabinet Member for Finance to enter into an amended Grant Determination Agreement (GDA) with Homes England.

b)           Establish a Cabinet Advisory Group (CAG) or similar working group of cross-party members to oversee the detailed design and development of HIF1.

c)            Authorise the development of a new Didcot area transport strategy and masterplan to meet the corporate priorities and agree to provide appropriate resources to support the development of the plan.

Recommendations were amended and agreed as follows:

RESOLVED to

a)            Authorise the Corporate Director Environment and Place, in consultation with the Director of Law & Governance, Director of Finance, Cabinet Member for Travel and Development Strategy and Cabinet Member for Finance to negotiate an amended Grant Determination Agreement (GDA) with Homes England. The amended GDA will need to include: 

·                     an extension to the availability period to 31st March 2026 and assurance that risks to the delivery timeframe caused by exceptional circumstances outside the Council's direct control will be mitigated 

·                     confirmation of an increase in funding to £239,816,437 

·                     confirmation that the Council has flexibility, subject to timescale and costs, to design and deliver infrastructure that will reduce the carbon impact and reduce the need to travel by car

b)            The draft of any amended GDA should be presented to Cabinet for consideration and potential approval. 

c)            Establish a Cabinet Advisory Group (CAG) to oversee the detailed design and development of HIF1. 

d)            Instruct officers immediately to commence the development of designs for the scheme consistent with this Council's strategic priorities. 

e)            Authorise the development of a new Didcot area transport strategy and masterplan to meet the corporate priorities and agree to provide appropriate resources to support the development of the plan. 

Cabinet was asked to approve of the amendment to the grant determination agreement (GDA) with Homes England and the delegation to officers and to note:

- progress made and changes to the scheme programme; and

- requirement for CPO process to follow GDA changes.

Before considering the report, the Chair had agreed to a number of requests to speak:

Councillor David Ruane, Leader, South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC), stated that he mainly wanted to address paragraph 17 of the report, the ‘Do Nothing’ Option which he maintained was not really an option.  He voted along with the rest of his cabinet to withdraw the Local Plan, knowing full well that this would mean the loss of the HIF funding and the end of this scheme.  However, following the intervention of the Secretary of State, South Oxfordshire now had an adopted Local Plan which contained housing sites which were dependent on the delivery of HIF1.

In North East Didcot much of the site had already been built.  According to traffic surveys 8,300 people already commuted from the Didcot area to Oxford for work. This road, and in particular the additional bridge over the Thames, was required to meet current need.  Arguments will be made that these journeys should be made in a more environmentally friendly way, by bus for example, but even buses needed a clear road to run reliably.

Councillor Ruane added that no Local Plan could withstand the loss of over 8,000 homes from its delivery schedule. In order to maintain housing delivery rates, other sites would have to come forward, sites determined by developers rather than by the council.  There were suggestions to ‘pause and review’ but the timescales on this project were such that to pause was to stop. The suggestion that one can pause and then go back to government with an alternative scheme which they will then finance was not realistic.

District Councillor Emily Smith, Leader, Vale of White Horse District Council, stated that she recognised the difficult situation the Cabinet found itself in with an inherited infrastructure scheme.  However, the HIF scheme was deeply entwined with other plans and commitments, including her main concern, the Vale Local Plan and its ability to demonstrate a 5 Year Housing Land Supply.

The Vale corporate plan was focused on climate action, healthy communities and providing homes that local people can afford to rent and buy. It was already hard to achieve these things within the national planning system but without being able to demonstrate a housing land supply, the council would again have its hands tied behind its back.

Councillor Smith was aware that the County Council had successfully secured some flexibility from government on the timeframe for delivery, which will allow the opportunity to rethink the design of the HIF infrastructure to identify ways of reducing the carbon impact and look again at ways to make this infrastructure more accessible for public transport and active travel.  She asked Cabinet to accept the officers’  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40