Rise in housing applications prompts Oxfordshire recruitment

A surge in applications for major housing developments has prompted West Oxfordshire District Council to seek a new senior planner.

Area development manager Phil Shaw told Planning: “Two key issues driving planning in the area right now, one of which is the economy, which is picking up.

“But we also revealed a few months ago that we do not have a five-year land supply and this has prompted a lot of major and small applications for everything from a couple of houses to hundreds of homes".

Shaw said the new planner would work as part of our customer-focused development management team at Witney and provide planning advice as well as lead other members of one of the development management teams.

Shaw said the new postholder would deal with a wide range of planning issues across rural and urban areas, which would involve working on green-belt issues, world heritage sites and scheduled ancient monuments.

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