Land off Kennylands Road, Sonning Common
Public Exhibition - 22 November 2010

This public exhibition is being held to consult the local community about a housing development being proposed on land to the rear of No’s 34-56 Kennylands Road, Sonning Common.

The site is being promoted for housing by T A Fisher & Sons Ltd, a local developer. They have employed Carter Jonas to act as their planning consultant  to promote the site as part of the South Oxfordshire Local Development Framework. T A Fisher may also decide to submit an outline planning application on the land.

A Development Brief has also been produced and this was presented to the Parish Council on 20 September 2010 (some of nearby residents also attended). The Brief provided information about the site and proposes a set of development principles, which fed into the design.

Need for New Homes

- Well recognized need for new homes throughout the UK. New Conservative/ Liberal Democrat Coalition aims to increase housing supply with a New Homes Bonus together with a target to deliver 150,000 new affordable homes over the next fours years. 

- Sonning Common is a large village with a population of around 2,000 people (parish is 4,700). Need for new homes over the next 16 years to service the existing population of the village and wider parish. 

- This will require the release of a Greenfield site on the edge of the village to limit the impact upon the countryside and provide easy access to local services and facilities in order to reduce reliance
upon the private car. 

- The sites considered by SODC are set out below in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Study, or SHLAA.

South Oxfordshire District Council 

- The Local Plan Proposals Map (see below left) shows the current policy designations. An area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) wraps around Sonning Common. Land off Kennylands Road is outside the AONB.

- The Local Plan identifies Sonning Common as a large village where new housing development is acceptable.

- In March 2009, SODC published its Core Strategy Preferred Options. This proposed 600 dwellings in the
seven villages of Chalgrove, Chinnor, Goring, Nettlebed, Sonning Common, Watlington and Woodcote between 2006 and 2026. This equates to 86 dwellings per village although there is every likelihood that some villages will receive more housing whilst others have less (range of 50-150 dwellings suggested).