Parish Planning

The next stage of the Oxhill Parish Plan Project (which in future will be referred to as `Oxhill's Future – Your Say`) is about to take place. It will be a visual survey of all of the buildings in the village.

This is part of work to create a Village Design Statement, which will attempt to describe the physical look and style of our built environment, and capture what characterises Oxhill. Village Design Statements are commonly used to help local authorities, conservation bodies and planning officials to make decisions for or against any proposed new developments.

Not having a statement can put neighbourhoods at the mercy of inappropriate building styles, such as the introduction of four storey houses built in modern brick when all existing buildings are one and two storeys high and built using local stone, to give an extreme example.

Volunteers from the steering group will be photographing the exterior of a range of buildings in the parish from roadsides and arranging these as `street scenes` to show Oxhill in its current appearance. They will be using a simple survey form to record basic information about each building such as the type of house, building construction, estimated date of construction and the type of boundary surrounding the property (if any). No personal household information will be collected or gathered nor any photography taken of the rear of individual premises.

If you see villagers with clipboards and cameras in the coming weeks, they will be part of the survey team. They will be happy to answer any questions you may have, if approached.

And look out for a leaflet on the project and how you can get involved with your suggestions. It will be posted through your letterbox soon.

If you have any comments or concerns please feel free to contact parish.planning @ oxhill.org.uk or Sue Hunt at Eudon, Whatcote Road (the Steering Group's Co-ordinator).

Thank you for your support.

This site is maintained by villagers of Oxhill for the benefit of the community and those interested in the history, news and activities that make the village such a pleasant place to live.

Send mail to the editor of the Oxhill News at news-editor @ oxhill.org.uk.

Last modified: June 20, 2013