The examiner has made no changes to the Plan's policies except in the area of site allocation and infill.

The examiner proposes no major changes to the Plan's allocations or provisions, but concluded that it would be appropriate to identify a reserve site, that should not be developed initially, but should be available if, after five years, it is likely the four sites will not provide approximately 94 dwellings.

He determined that, despite some problems, GNP8 is the most appropriate site to be held in reserve, but specified that it is not to be developed for housing, or for any development that would make future housing development less likely, unless on or after 31st March 2024 it becomes apparent that the four development sites identified in the Plan are unlikely to produce approximately 94 new dwellings in the Plan period.

In summary, the examiner:

• commended the Draft Plan for being well written, logical, clear, appropriately concise and intelligible;
• was satisfied that public consultation was taken seriously and that sufficient consultation was undertaken;
• welcomed the draft Plan’s recognition of the needs of the elderly, disabled people and the young, its support for walking, cycling and the use of public transport, and its support for heritage assets;
• rejected the idea that a settlement entirely within an AONB that contains x% of a district’s population must provide x% of the new housing, which in the emerging SODC local plan meant an allocation of 233 dwellings for Goring;
• but at the same time recognised some new housing on greenfield sites within the AONB is inevitable.
• confirmed that the Plan should take a balanced view and only needs to provide 94 dwellings;
• as a consequence, that more land for housing will have to be found elsewhere in the district, outside of the Goring Parish, but that will be a matter for SODC.
• was satisfied that the selection of the four sites was appropriate and was carried out in a way that avoided inappropriate influence;
• concluded that it would be appropriate to identify a reserve site, that should not be developed initially, but should be available if, after five years, it is likely the four sites will not provide approximately 94 dwellings;
• confirmed the allocation of GNP2, GNP3, GNP6 and GNP10, and their site-specific requirements, and identified GNP8 as the reserved site;
• made a change to the infill policy to align it with the SODC core strategy.

SODC have made a number of grammatical and factual changes to the Plan. In particular, two factual corrections have been made to the section concerning site GNP3:

• Because it is no longer factually correct, the sentence in paragraph 6.3.2, "Approximately half of the site is in Flood Zone 1 and half in Flood Zone 2” has been deleted.
• Because it is no longer factually correct, and to accurately reflect the examiners intentions, the phrase in site-specific requirement 5, "in an area of approximately 1.5ha in Flood Zone 1" has been replaced with "in Flood Zone 1 levels".