Town Planner Pro
Free trial
Search appeal decisions

Planning appeal decision

Allowed21 October 20243326625

Land Between A34 Milton Interchange, And B4015 North of Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire

Planning appeal 3326625 at Land Between A34 Milton Interchange, And B4015 North of Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire (Oxfordshire County Council) was allowed on 21 October 2024 by Inspector Coffey L, following an inquiry. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: The need for and highway benefits of the Scheme.

Dualling of the A4130 (A4130 Widening), a road bridge over the Great Western Mainline (Didcot Science Bridge) with realignment of the A4130, a new road between Didcot and Culham (Didcot to Culham River Crossing) including three roundabouts and bridges, a new road between the B4015 and A415 (Clifton Hampden bypass), and controlled crossings, footways and cycleways, landscaping, lighting, noise barriers and sustainable drainage systems

Authority
Oxfordshire County Council
Appeal type
other · Called In Planning Application
Procedure
Inquiry
Development
other · Other Major Developments
Inspector
Coffey L

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

  • The need for and highway benefits of the Scheme
  • Whether the transport modelling on which the proposal is based is robust and takes account of any significant traffic impacts in the wider area
  • Whether the proposal would make acceptable provision for sustainable travel, including walking and cycling, and accord with the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan
  • Consideration of alternatives
  • Adequacy of the Environmental Statement
  • The effect of the proposal on the character and appearance of the surrounding landscape, including any loss of trees and/or hedges

What decided it

The substantial and significant benefits of the Scheme, including facilitating housing and economic growth and improving highway network performance and resilience, were found to clearly outweigh the Green Belt harm and other identified harms, establishing Very Special Circumstances.

The substantial weight given to highway network benefits and significant weight to housing, economic and sustainable transport benefits were found to clearly outweigh the substantial Green Belt harm, significant landscape and visual harm, and great weight heritage harm, such that Very Special Circumstances existed and the paragraph 208 heritage balance and overall planning balance favoured the Scheme.

What the Inspector cited

Development plan policies
Policy TRANS 1bPolicy TRANS 2Policy TRANS 3Policy TRANS5STRAT2STRAT 3STRAT6STRAT 9STRAT10iENV1ENV3ENV6ENV7ENV8ENV9ENV10ENV12DES 1DES 2DES 6DES 8EP1Core Policy 4Core Policy 6Core Policy 15Core Policy 17Core Policy 18Core Policy 33Core Policy 35Core Policy 38Core Policy 4aCore Policy 16bCore Policy 18aDP23DP25DP26DP36DP37DP38DP39CP44CP 46Policy M10Policy CUL8Policy SC17Policy IN3
National Planning Policy Framework
Paragraph 11Paragraph 15Paragraph 47Paragraph 48Paragraph 56Paragraph 74Paragraph 84Paragraph 85Paragraph 86Paragraph 112Paragraph 115Paragraph 116Paragraph 143Paragraph 153Paragraph 155Paragraph 157Paragraph 173Paragraph 180Paragraph 191Paragraph 205Paragraph 208
Judgments
R (Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport [2022] PTSR 74; Bramley Solar Farm Residents Group v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities [2023] EWHC 2842; Holohan and Others v An Bord Pleanála [2018] PTSR 1054 (Case C-461/17)

How the Inspector dealt with each one is set out in the app, in order: the development plan, national policy, housing land supply, other considerations and the planning balance, beside the letter.

See how each was applied

The decision letter

Town Planner Pro holds this letter. The Appeals plan opens it and every other letter we hold, all of them searchable, with the main issues and what decided each case picked out. We do not show letters on the free site because they carry people’s names and addresses.

Appeals plan, £15 a month

With an account

What an account adds to this decision

An appeal decision in the app, with the main issues, policies and judgments cited picked out beside the letter
Every letter, there to read. We pick out the main issues, the policies and the judgments cited, so you can work through the letter faster.
Searching the full text of appeal decision letters in the app
Search inside every letter. By words or by meaning, filtered by authority, outcome, appeal type and procedure, with every locatable decision on the map and the Inspector named on each.
Start your free trial

More decisions in Oxfordshire County Council

The authority’s record since 2016 · every decision in 2024

  1. Allowed18 May 20263361505
    White Cross Farm, Reading Road, Cholsey, OX10 9HG
  2. Dismissed27 March 20253355446
    Stonepitt Barn Kingston Road, Frilford, Abingdon, OX13 5HB
  3. Unknown24 March 20263354172
    Appeal 3354172
  4. Unknown23 March 20263350366
    Appeal 3350366
  5. Unknown17 February 20263377343
    Land Adjoining Appleton Road Common, Cumnor, Oxford, OX2 9QH

The main issues, what decided it, the planning balance and the policies and judgments listed as cited are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro and are our summary, not the Inspector’s words; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.

In the app this decision sits on the map beside every appeal around it, with its letter to read and the main issues, policies and judgments cited picked out.