Planning

The Cumnor Neighbourhood Plan was made on 18 May 2021.

Cumnor Parish Council has a committee that considers planning applications. This committee meets on the third Monday of each month. As the Council has 21 days to record any observations, any planning applications that fall outside of the allowable timeframe are considered at full Council (this meets on the first Monday of each month).

Note: The Parish Council have a formal role in planning applications. This role is a “consultee” role whereby the Council are able to provide observations to the Vale of White Horse District Council. It does not make the final decision on whether planning permissions are granted.

When commenting on planning applications please ensure that what is said is relevant to planning, as only material planning considerations can be taken into account. This is the list of relevant planning issues:-

• Overshadowing and Loss of light
• Over-dominance
• Noise disturbance, smells, obtrusive lighting or other impacts on amenity
• Planning history of the site
• Highway safety issues
• Traffic generation
• Car parking provision
• Design, including appearance, layout, scale, density and materials
• Local drainage issues
• Local flooding issues
• Loss of important open spaces
• Loss of important community facilities
• Impact on important trees
• Propose landscaping
• Impact on the character or setting of a listed building
• Green Belt
• Impact on the character or appearance of a Conservation Area
• National Planning and guidance
• Regional Planning polices and guidance

This list is not exhaustive but gives a clear idea of the sort of comments that are relevant to the consideration of a planning application.

Examples of what are not material planning considerations:-

• Loss of value to a property
• Loss of view over private land
• Personal disagreements
• Boundary disputes
• Covenants
• Commercial competition
• Construction disturbance
• Sunday trading
• Matters controlled under other legislation such as the Building Regulations

If the Council submits an objection to an application, a District Councillor must “call in” the application. This would then be assessed by the Vale’s Planning Committee.