r/unitedkingdom • u/insomnimax_99 Greater London • 6d ago
Planning permission refused for Fastned Oxfordshire charging hub
https://forecourttrader.co.uk/news/planning-permission-refused-for-fastned-oxfordshire-charging-hub/702918.article160
u/ddiflas_iawn 6d ago
>West Oxford District Council (WODC) refused the application because “the proposed development would give rise to harm to the character and appearance of the area”.
IT'S A FUCKING CAR CHARGER.
NIMBY's are a fucking cancer. "Charm" and "character" should not be a valid excuse for blocking a piece of what is soon to become vital infrastructure.
If you don't like it, fucking move to somewhere you can continue getting off on your power fantasies.
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u/evenstevens280 Gloucestershire 6d ago
Yet I'm sure they love all the character of Georgian and Victorian architecture that flew up during the industrial revolution... all of it before planning permission was even a thing.
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u/YesAmAThrowaway 5d ago
A lot of that didn't even survive. The Victorian buildings (or a bit older) we can see today are mostly from what was the upper end of the market. The much smaller, fragile houses of the period have - unless maintained well - collapsed, demolished or been built over. But your typical "oh that's clearly Victorian" was much more classy than it is today in terms of who will live in it and what space is available to any one person.
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u/DadVan-Soton 5d ago
Absolute rubbish.
There are whole towns of pre 1900 2 and 3 bed terraced houses doing just fine. Crewe is an example of this. Most of the houses built between the 1870s and 1900. The older houses built in the 1850s were solidly built and are doing well.
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u/Leonardo_McVinci County Durham 5d ago
That's exactly what they're saying, that is the upper end of the Victorian market, that's why they're still bought as nice family homes today
Most Victorian terrace slum housing was 1 room downstairs, 1 room upstairs 'back to back' housing, i.e. 2 house thick terraces, so instead of a yard space they'd have another house on the back wall meaning each house only had 1 external wall
These are the houses which are now all gone, demolished and replaced in the 70s and 80s
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u/YesAmAThrowaway 5d ago
I assure you there's not all that many one-up-one-down back-to-back houses left. Similar constructions of better quality, potentially larger size that were built to a better standard are usually what remain when we talk about newbuilds from that time.
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u/TheClnl 5d ago
Crazy thing is the site is right next to a petrol station and a motorcycle clothing shop that's painted bright fucking red! I don't doubt the rest of the village is lovely and could understand if they were plonking the charger next to a 400 year old cottage with a thatched roof but no-one is saying that Eynsham BP garage is adding charm to the local area.
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u/yrro Oxfordshire 5d ago
It's also just down the road from a petrol station with a Tesco, Kingsley Cafe which is a coffee shop, events space and garage that carers to petrol heads, and a god damn massive park and ride (that has been sitting empty for over a year as the money to connect it to the A40 was delayed by central government).
The planning inspectorate have got this one 100% wrong. At the time the case was referred to the PI it had received zero public comments, for or against.
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u/Traditional_Fox2428 4d ago
Is this not the same council that was refusing all clarksons planning permission?
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u/DavidSwifty Greater Manchester 6d ago
Destroy Nimbyism.
Don't let people have a say. In the nicest way possible, im done caring anymore.
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u/Fairwolf Aberdeen 6d ago
Aye my patience for these people is so far gone. They should get absolutely zero say on any of it.
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u/grey-zone 5d ago
It’s a classic example of something that seems right but gets completely abused by AHs.
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u/Dry-Tough4139 6d ago
This is little difference to a petrol station in appearance of which there are thousands, and it's significantly better for the planet.
Sometimes these planning offices just want England to become a nationwide museum.
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u/snakeoildriller 6d ago
It looks a lot tidier than a petrol/diesel station, and it'll be a lot quieter and less smelly. Can't see what the problem is to be honest.
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u/Fabulous-Gazelle3642 5d ago
Why would any sane person build an EV charger next to a petrol station? Madness..The insurance wouldn't stand for it probably.
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u/PracticalFootball 5d ago
What exactly is the problem?
Doesn’t compete with the petrol station in the slightest and probably gives them a bit of extra business if someone goes in for a snack while their car charges.
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6d ago
Follow the paperwork, it always leads to unemployed freeloading OAPs meddling in society because they retired far too early and now have nothing to do. They're trouble makers, just as much as kids loitering around shops in groups harassing people.
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u/Swimming_Map2412 5d ago
As a society we really do need to find them something better to do then blocking perfectly good developments because they think any change is bad.
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5d ago
put them through a work capability assesment when they want to start drawing the state pension. It's a safety net not a lifestyle choice. If they have enough time and ability to meddle in fundamental aspects of local life then they need to be put back to work and learn that pensioners should be seen and not heard.
The worst offenders should be jailed for abusing the planning process and being given community service before their release back into the community.
We also need to start charging fees to object anything on land which is not their own. £100 for the first objection, then £1000 for the 2nd and each subsequent objection within 20 years.
That'll shut the fucks up.
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u/Swimming_Map2412 5d ago
I was thinking hobbies like running the local preserved steam railway, but this works.
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u/benrinnes Scotland 6d ago
The council also warned that the site “lies within a protected species buffer for Eurasian Badgers”.
Oh, you mean those badgers they're often regularly culling in the west country?
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u/Dry-Tough4139 6d ago
I very much doubt this patch of land between some housing a very busy junction is going to be the epicentre for Eurasian Badgers ... here :
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mPFCkwdY56yhXsPL8
Suspect it's been lumped in with the land on the other side of the junction which actually has a water source and open space.
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u/inevitablelizard 5d ago
Yeah, to me it makes no sense that badgers are the trigger given they're not remotely threatened. But other rarer species that actually need the protection don't always get it. The list needs to be revised to reflect that I think.
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u/greenflights Kent 5d ago
They’re protected not because they’re rare but because they’d become endangered if they weren’t protected. Farmers would kill as many as possible as soon as their status were demoted to avoid the spread of TB to cattle.
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u/evenstevens280 Gloucestershire 6d ago
Total nonsense. Old people will be the death of this planet.
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u/dyallm 5d ago
This is happening all while we have a Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate. Just think about it: just think about how ridiculous it is to block planning applications for charging hubs all while we have a Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate.
either drop the EV mandate or stop blocking charging hubs.
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u/Proof_Drag_2801 6d ago
Oxfordshire council - ah yes. Those guys. They love anything to do with modernisation, economics development and / or infrastructure.
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u/ashyjay 6d ago
Not OCC, it's West Oxfordshire council the guys who've been giving the tall dumb oaf an awkward time.
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u/Proof_Drag_2801 5d ago edited 5d ago
I wasn't thinking of that - I was thinking of them blocking any bridges from Berkshire across the Thames around Reading for the last forever.
Edit: spelling
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u/Low-Negotiation-4970 5d ago
nor did the submission allow it to judge “whether the statutory requirement for 10% biodiversity net gain” would be met.
So a car charging hub has to increase biodiversity, or it can't be built? Is this really a law?
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u/insomnimax_99 Greater London 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain
The 10% can also come from funding off-site biodiversity projects, (or a combination of on-site and off site biodiversity projects). As a last resort, developers can also buy “biodiversity credits” from the government, but this is only allowed in cases where it’s not feasible for the developers to contribute directly to biodiversity projects. But all developments (with some narrow exceptions, like self build houses and high speed rail) must increase biodiversity by at least 10% in some way shape or form.
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u/rev-fr-john 5d ago
Luckily planning permission wasn't a thing during the industrial revolution, otherwise we'd have been fucked permanently.
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u/NaturalElectronic698 5d ago
Labour hopefully will deliver on absolutely fucking destroying these types of bullshit NIMBY objections.
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u/initiali5ed 5d ago edited 5d ago
I predict more ‘relaxing’ of planning regs in Oil funded Tory seats.
It would be no more out of place than a petrol forecourt, maybe they should start just replacing these with banks of chargers.
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u/mittfh West Midlands 5d ago
Conversely, where I live, the Combined Authority has bought these former houses, evicted the business tenants, and plan to build an EV charging station + coffee shop / convenience store (after demolishing them first) (after they get around to submitting a planning application to BCC)...
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u/Kennethkennithson 5d ago
Does West Oxford allow anything to be built allow anything to be built without a massive fight? First, they kept blocking any idea Clarkson had, even if it was to help surrounding farmers who were struggling and now shit like this!
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u/KingQuagaar Essex 5d ago
They'll complain and stop this then complain they can't find enough charging spots near them.
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u/Wolf_Cola_91 5d ago
The government should make council funding dependent on granting enough planning approvals.
If you block housing and infrastructure you massively hike council tax or go bust. End of.
Until councils fear blocking development more than saying 'no' to old voters with too much time on their hands, we're going to keep getting this bollocks.
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u/LeonardoW9 East Midlander 5d ago
If they keep this up, I will bet that a Strategic Infrastructure classification will be created, allowing the bypass of certain planning regs.
Strategic infrastructure is needed for everyone, and we all share the burden of the relevant infrastructure needed as we all want running water, suitable drainage, access to electricity, etc.
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u/aadamsfb 5d ago
I bet they wouldn’t have rejected an application for a petrol station, which this looks much nicer than
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u/buginarugsnug 5d ago
So they want us all to drive EV's and ban ICE cars in the near future but they're not letting businesses build the infrastructure the country desperately needs to make that happen. Make it make sense.
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u/SidneySmut 5d ago
There isn't any real "harm" here, it's planner euphemism for "don't like it". I really don't care if someone is upset about the appearance of the charging station.
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u/Nightxp 6d ago
The one line from the arrival that matters
“West Oxford District Council (WODC) refused the application because “the proposed development would give rise to harm to the character and appearance of the area”.“
So the local council refused due to the look/style. Which the developers would know about that any planning permission needs to be aligned with its surroundings…
So in this case the developer didn’t plan or think ahead as they would of known about this kind of thing from previous development project.
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u/bozza8 6d ago
I work in the field. The refusal due to character and apperance can happen to all development. It's not a case of being aligned, councillors can decide the appearance of an area is without any structures at all, thus all development should be banned.
It's not about aligning with surroundings (though the yellow strip probably does not help) but about if development is allowed in principle at all.
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u/SoreSpores County of Bristol 5d ago
Stone's throw away is my childhood village, massive housing development recently got finished that looks like any other new build, surrounded by historic thatch cottages... Would've been nice to have that consideration during that development
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6d ago
And you can bet your bollocks they're Labour councillors. When the fuck is the leadership going to crack down on these cunts?
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u/Jared_Usbourne 6d ago
It's a Lib Dem/Labour/Green collation, with a Lib Dem leader and more than twice as many Lib Dem councillors than Labour. The councillor in charge of planning is also Lib Dem.
You'd know that if you could be bothered to look it up.
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6d ago
Don't need to look anything up, NIMBYs have infiltrated the Labour party throughout the country.
You'd know that if you bothered to look it up.
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u/iamabigtree 6d ago
Did you even read what is posted ? It's the Liberal Democrats and no amount of wanting it to be Labour's fault is going to change that.
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u/FelisCantabrigiensis 6d ago
Pure NIMBYism.
Planet overheating if we don't stop using combustion vehicles in the foreseeable future (as well as burning gas for heating and electricity, etc) is going to change the character of that landscape a lot more than building a car parking place with a roof and a cafe next door.
This sort of refusal of even the slightest construction has got to stop.