Members of Cherwell District Council Planning Committee have rejected a residential development for up to 98 homes the west of Banbury Road in Twyford.

The council has, until recently, been unable to effectively turn down such developments as they could not demonstrate that they had aa five-year land supply on which to build the required number of houses.  In consequence they knew developers would win at appeal potentially leaving them with expensive legal costs.

They are now convinced that they do have and so planning –  rather than inspectors paid to say “yes” or a secretary of state hell bent on getting the economy going before an election above all else – may possibly be just over the horizon!

We need appropriate development but its hard to remember when appropriateness last featured in consideration of applications hereabouts.