DAVID Cameron has been told to face up to the “development juggernaut” unleashed on Oxfordshire by Government planning reforms.

The warning comes from Woodstock town councillor and economist Peter Jay, who says the Government had declared “an open season for rampant development” in the county.

Mr Jay was responding to a letter Mr Cameron has sent out to more than 45,000 of his constituents in West Oxfordshire.

The former ambassador and broadcaster said Mr Cameron’s annual West Oxfordshire Report suggests he has been “badly misled” about what has really been going on in Oxfordshire and the real impact of his own Government’s policies.

While Mr Cameron’s annual report to constituents talked about providing homes sensitively, the reality is very different, insists Mr Jay, chairman of the campaign group ROAR (Rural Oxfordshire Action Rally).

He tells Mr Cameron, MP for Witney: “The feeling here is one of total powerlessness in the face of a development juggernaut unleashed upon local communities by the Government’s effective declaration of open season for rampant development, disregarding and overriding all normal considerations of good planning and of democratic accountability.

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“In Cherwell District for example, just about every significant planning refusal the council has given in the last two years has been overruled by inspectors on the grounds of deficient land supply. West Oxfordshire and other districts feel similarly threatened. Everyone knows these land supply numbers are arbitrary and speculative.”

The letter to 10 Downing Street concluded: “I am no committed supporter of your party. But it almost grieves me to see a decent innocent such as yourself being deceived by huge vested interests into betraying the very people who normally form the backbone of your party’s support.”

Mr Jay, former economics editor of the BBC and a former British Ambassador to the United States, was among speakers at a public rally against rural development held at Church Green, Witney, on Saturday.

In his annual report to constituents Mr Cameron says: “I know there is great strength of feeling amongst local residents in West Oxfordshire regarding proposed development and I can completely understand why.

“We all realise that we need more homes, and the Government’s planning reforms are about doing this as sensitively as possible and in a way that local communities feel involved and empowered.The faster a council can demonstrate it has a reasonable forward land supply for new housing and a new local plan in place, the more they will be able to say “no” to inappropriate developments.”

Mr Cameron adds: West Oxfordshire is doing well in this regard and has a good record of balancing new housing numbers needed without causing unnecessary harm to our market towns and picturesque villages.”

Natasha Whitmill from the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association said: “David Cameron will be responding to Peter Jay directly.”

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