CONTROVERSIAL proposals for 1,000 new homes in Oxford's Green Belt have been dropped. As reported in the
Oxford Mail on Monday, the plans for the new homes south of Grenoble Road, near Oxford United's Kassam Stadium, had been part of the county council's draft Structure Plan, which will determine where 36,500 new homes are built by 2016. Yesterday, the county council's executive board agreed to drop the plans and redistribute the housing allocation among other districts.
Council leaders agreed that instead of the Grenoble Road scheme, where homes would have to be located near electricity pylons and a sewage treatment plant, there should be an extra:
This proposal, the biggest amendment to the draft Structure Plan, will now be discussed by a full meeting of councillors before it can be adopted.
Deputy council leader Margaret Godden said: "Some people felt the Grenoble Road plan would be the thin end of a very large wedge and that we would soon be told 5,000 homes were needed there.
"Once you start building on the Green Belt, it comes under threat all the way around. I'm not surprised there has been such a large reaction from people who have urged us not to do this because they fear it would be the end of Oxford's Green Belt."
Council leader Keith Mitchell agreed that plans for housing on Grenoble Road should be scrapped. But he warned that, due to demand for new housing, Oxford's Green Belt could not be protected forever.
The plans to site new homes near Grenoble Road generated 1,900 objections, about 75 per cent of all the objections received about the Structure Plan. The new homes would have been placed in south Oxfordshire, against the wishes of the district council. County executive member Don Seale, the Conservative councillor for Burford, said the Grenoble Road proposal should not be reconsidered.
Developers' plans for a 2,000-home 'eco village' in the Green Belt at Sunningwell, near Abingdon, are still being vigorously opposed by residents.
andrew.ffrench@nqo.com