Victory for New Road

At last night's SODC Planning Committee meeting held in Abingdon, the Planning officer’s recommendation to accept the proposal for 24 new homes on land off New Road was rejected 7 to 1.

We didn’t get to present our case until after 9pm after the first application took 140 minutes. We eventually left the building gone 930pm, but with a victory. Dozens of residents came along to the meeting, so many that a separate room was needed to accommodate them all. A great team effort from and on behalf of Shiplake!

After a lacklustre presentation of the proposal by the Planning Officer

• As Parish Chairman I kicked off Shiplake’s spirited case to reject the Officer's recommendation. I criticised a confused Officer’s report, how it missed important parts of our objections and how the proposal contravening our made Neighbourhood Plan (Vision, three Objectives and numerous Policies) and the existing Local Plan. I challenged the recommendation because it would therefore render all NPs useless and lead to more speculative development in Shiplake that had suffered enough. I also spoke about a technical Planning matter, the misapplication of the tilted balance. 
• Karen Cooper spoke eloquently about the resident feelings of despair over the application and how it contravened the NP, and amongst other topics about the unsuitability of the location for development and the difficulty of walking to facilities in Lower Shiplake and Shiplake. 
• The developer (WoolfBond) spoke about their plan and lectured the Planning Committee on housing needs and what was needed in Planning policy making. Based on the questions asked of him by the Committee he may not have made a good impression on them. 
• Leigh Rawlins our SODC district councillor then wrapped up our case with an impassioned underlining of the problems with the site, the misapplication of the tilted balance and good local knowledge of the unsuitability of the road for walking and driving, and getting to the school 1.2km away without footpaths. He also criticised the Officer's use of drought condition photographs of New Road. 

I have probably missed lots of what was said by us,  but our collective presentations built well on each other and made a good impression on the Planning Committee Councillors. SODC Councillors were eager to defend the importance and role of Neighbourhood Plans and that they believed tilted balance had been disproportionate. They recognised the site was poor, especially for those walking to facilities. Only Ken Arlett (of Henley) was contrarian and suggested it was a better plan than another we might end up with in this location. The vote was strongly in Shiplake’s favour, 7 to 1.

Some SODC Councillors spoke to me later to say how well we had fought the application. I spoke to Ken Arlett afterwards and told him we respected his perspective in the debate, but that local democracy and Neighbourhood Plans had been well served in our 7 to 1 win.

Many thanks to those who prepared, spoke, attended, watched online or wished us well. It was a good first battle victory, but I fear it is not the end of this particular war.

Posted by: Chris Penrose | 09/10/2025 9:18 am

Great job to all involved. Would hope that this is the last of it but imagine it won't be..

Posted by: PHILIP BIGGS | 10/10/2025 7:05 pm

Thank you to Chris, Leigh and Karen for their impactful presentations as well as all the residents who traipsed over to Abingdon and sat through a very contentious case for 2 hours before ours could start. It definitely helped!

Huge thanks to the New Road Action Committee who pulled together quickly to do what we could ahead of the meeting with under 2 weeks notice, to Kate Parsons for collecting signatures (over 200 and counting) and to David Barthlomew for his guidance & support in both the residents' objection and the residents letter emailed to councillors beforehand. Thank you to those who read our village letter and joined the WhatsApp group to show your support. It really goes to show how much community spirit there is - and also fight! - in Shiplake.

It was actually very refreshing to hear from the other SODC councillors, and for those who were not there, or didn't watch it (I highly recommend you do to get a full understanding of the issue / case) they really did feel like they were well aware of the impact that approving this development would have. 

As Chris says, this will not be the end of it - but it's a very good start and we are well equipped to move forward.

If anyone would like to join the committee, get involved or join the group - please reply privately to me and I will send the link. The group is a great place to ask your questions - as is this post!

Drinks in the Baskerville 6.30pm Friday (10th)  night - all welcome!

Posted by: Rhiannon Davies | 09/10/2025 7:13 pm

For those who would like to see a recording of yesterday's Planning Committee meeting on the New Road application here is a link to it 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmSua7c_IOA

There's over 2 hours of content prior to the New Road application to bypass before you get to content relevant to Shiplake,   so please scroll forward to these approximate times:
 
2:15 to see the Planning Officer presentation (and unfortunately from here until end of video all although the visuals are of the presentation left on screen) 

2:28  Chris Penrose, Shiplake Parish Chairman  

2:34 Karen Cooper, New Road residents

2:39 The developer

2:50 Leigh Rawlins, SODC District Councillor 

2:56 to 3:20  Planning Committee debate and vote 

It looks like I misremembered the vote count from last night and it was in fact 8 : 1 in Shiplake's favour,  not 7 :

1 reported earlier.

Posted by: Chris Penrose | 09/10/2025 1:13 pm

A 'top job' as one of the parish councillors remarked. A great deal was stated by the voting district councillors regarding the importance of NP's in the planning process. The SODC planning function needs to recognise their importance. ...and a big  thankyou to the residents who were key to the development of the Shiplake Plan. 

Posted by: David Pheasant | 09/10/2025 10:04 am