Tuesday 27 October 2009 - Horspath Parish Council Wind Turbine Meeting - in Horspath Village Hall at 8:00pm. The documents pertaining to the meeting, including a letter from the Parish Council to the Oxford City Council Chief Exec, are now available to read on-line.

29 September 2009 - CPRE Oxon wins legal challenge to South East Plan. The Secretary of State has conceded the grounds of the CPRE challenge to the SE Plan, i.e, that the Sustainability Appraisal failed to take into account reasonable alternatives. CPRE are awaiting the draft Consent Order setting out the suggested form of final order. See the CPRE press release (PDF format 45 Kb).

1 September 2009 - read Horspath Parish Council's statement on the issue of a proposed wind turbine.

19 August 2009 - The Head of Marketing and Communications at Partnerships for Renewables (PfR) sent a document to Horspath Parish Council on the subject of "Renewable Energy Potential of Oxford City Council Land" (PDF format 127 Kb) which can be read here.

22 October 2008 - At a meeting of the Oxford City Council Executive Board, the Council made public their plans to set up a joint venture to develop land south of Grenoble Road with Magdalen College and Thames Water to ensure the early delivery of the plan. Read or download the document discussed (PDF 640 Kb, please be patient - this large file may take several seconds to appear) at that meeting.

17 July 2008 - bad news for the Oxford Green Belt. Minister gives go-ahead for development of Grenoble Road Green Belt Area. See Press Releases issued in response and tell us your views.

Oxford City Council is preparing a document called the Core Strategy that will set out the pattern of development across Oxford until 2026. This means that it will, for example, identify which broad areas are suitable for housing and other strategic development needs. The Core Strategy will be a key document within Oxford's Local Development Framework (LDF).

Wind Turbine Proposals

Oxford City Council is working with a private company to install giant wind turbines on 4 sites, all in the Green Belt. The sites are at Oxford Road Horspath, Sandford Brake, Chilswell Farm and Cutteslowe Park. For more insight into City Council thinking see:

Oxford City Council Executive Board meeting of 4 February 2008 (PDF 230 Kb) proposed sites at Horspath and Sandford Brake,

Oxford City Council Executive Board meeting of 17 March 2008 (PDF 261 Kb) proposed sites at Chilswell Farm and Cutteslowe Park, and,

Oxford City Council Executive Board meeting of 21 April 2008 (PDF 435 Kb) proposed further investigation of the above sites.

Inland windfarms are not economically effective and the turbines, if erected, would spoil views and add to clutter from pylons and overhead wires in Horspath’s Green Belt setting. The Oxford Green Belt is not the place for wind turbines, least of all on Shotover, a SSSI. They could do great harm for very little benefit.