Friends of the West Oxfordshire Cotswolds

Planning in the Cotswolds National Landscape AONB
 
By law planning authorities have to have regard to conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of AONBs when they make plans or decide planning applications.  The Cotswold Conservation Board (CCB) is a government appointed body charged with conserving and enhancing the landscape and its natural beauty.  The CCB prepares a management plan which the planning authority is required to treat as a material consideration in planning decisions
 
National Policy requires planning authorities to give great weight to impact on the landscape and natural beauty when making decisions in the AONB.  Major developments are only to be permitted in exceptional circumstances.

West Oxfordshire's Local Plan restricts greenfield development in the AONB to meeting needs which are local to the AONB.

Plans and decisions are made however by local authorities whose primary interest is not conservation.  In 2019 the Government commissioned a Landscapes Review into National Parks and AONBs led by Julian Glover.  Its recommendations included national park status for the Cotswolds, a Cotswolds wide local plan and statutory consultee status for the CCB.  In its 2019 manifesto the Government committed to creating new National Parks but it has yet to deliver on its policy commitments. We strongly supported the review's recommendations.
 
It is important that the protections for AONBs are properly understood by our planning authority to prevent harm to the AONB and undermining the reason why it exists.