Page 10 - Ickford Neighbourhood Plan

10 VISION FOR ICKFORD : ICKFORD NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN : 2019 – 2033

2.4.. .. . It is important to separate houses in Local Plans that would be built anyway
(i.e. in the absence of the expressway) and houses uniquely associated with the
‘transformational development’ of the expressway. The plan is that Oxfordshire will
have an additional 300,000 homes by 2050 doubling the county’s current total housing
stock of 280,000; about 100,000 of these are accounted for in current Local Plans
with the remainder associated with expressway development. Once approved,
construction of the expressway will start in 2025 and is due for completion by 2030.

2.5.. .. . The large scale and current uncertainties of the project mean that it is
beyond the scope of this current Neighbourhood Plan. However, the situation will be
monitored by the Parish Council and the Neighbourhood Plan reviewed if necessary
in the future.

Local Planning Documents

2.6
2.6. The current Local Plan currently consists of the Aylesbury Vale District
2.6
2.6
2.6
Local Plan 2004 (AVDLP). In 2007, planning law changed meaning that the policies
in this Local Plan had to be ‘saved’ by the Secretary of State in order to remain in
force. Full details of the ‘saved’ policies of the AVDLP are available on BC’s website.
The emerging Local Plan is called the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan 2013-2033 (VALP).
This is at an advanced stage in production and is currently at Examination by a
Government Inspector. Its policies therefore have to be taken into account during the
development of the Neighbourhood Plan.

3. Parish Description

3.1.
3.1.
3.1. Ickford Village is situated some 5 miles from Thame – (population 11,561
3.1.
3.1.
in the 2011 census), though now rapidly expanding, - 12 miles from Oxford (pop.
150,200), and 13 miles from Aylesbury (pop.56,392), our postal town. The village is
in the most western edge of Buckinghamshire and paradoxically closer to Oxford
than many parts of Oxfordshire. The county border is the River Thame on the southern
outskirts of the village.

3.2.
3.2. The M40 motorway is some 3 miles travel to Junctions 7 or 8 – less as a
3.2.
3.2.
3.2.
crow would fly; and Haddenham-Thame Parkway station is some 5 miles to the east
providing fast commuter services on the Chiltern line to High Wycombe and London
Marylebone in the south; Bicester, Banbury and Birmingham, to the north. These
wider but good communication links have made Ickford, as well as other surrounding
villages, attractive places to live and commute, but in so doing have changed the
economic wellbeing of the village.

3.3.
3.3.
3.3. Notwithstanding that, the surrounding land is flat, and crisscrossed by many
3.3.
3.3.
footpaths. Access to the Chilterns – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB),
is good and within a 15 minute drive.
3.4.
3.4.
3.4.
3.4.
3.4. The surrounding land has a very high water table, which can result in the
fields around Ickford becoming badly flooded, and at times even the village itself. The
village is in effect an island surrounded by a Flood Zone 3 flood zone. See Flood Map,
Floodplain in Ickford – Page 27.

VISION FOR ICKFORD – NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN
www.visionforickford.co.uk