POETS highlight Bioabundance case in critique of Oxfordshire’s Democratic Deficit

The planning and environmental group, POETS is raising serious concerns about the erosion of local democracy in Oxfordshire where central government and bodies that are remote, unelected and unaccountable to local people are taking control of the planning process. The critique cites the legal challenge of Bioabundance against SODC.

In  DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT 2021 Who decides Oxfordshire’s future? POETS describes the ‘astonishing intervention of the Secretary of State Robert Jenrick in forcing councillors at SODC to push through  the local plan.  The authors point out that ‘the adopted local plan reflects the dominant growth narrative of central government, and its ability to push through a scale of housing growth which, following local elections, did not have local support.  In part as a consequence of this undemocratic process, local group Bioabundance is challenging the local plan in the High Court on grounds relating to process, housing numbers and climate change.’