Hundreds of people will take to the streets of Oxford for ugly 'French-style' protests if developers are allowed to build in the city's Green Belt.
That is the warning from one Oxfordshire county councillor who has issued a rallying cry for others to join him in saying to the Government "hands off our Green Belt."
Fears are growing about exactly where thousands of houses in Oxfordshire will be built. Housing allocation is soon to be taken out of the county council's control and given to the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) - an unelected panel of 111 people chosen from across the region. And confusion still reigns over exactly how many will be built with some suggesting there could be an extra 3,160 new homes every year until 2026 - instead of the anticipated 2,430.
Dorchester county councillor John Howell reckons scenes such as those seen in France when farmers have taken to the streets to protest over issues could be repeated in Oxford if the Green Belt is ripped up. He said: "Organisations campaign passionately for the Green Belt because they feel it has served Oxford well for the past 40-years and continues to do so. At the moment they can articulate that to me and other county councillors and hold us to account in the elections. There is a growing frustration at the development that is happening all around - but there is nothing we can do about it. The experience from France is that people find there is only one way in that situation and that is by having large protests, which in the French case get very ugly. Many people feel there is no option other than to go down that route and it is very public and very loud."
The county council wants to see additional housing absorbed by county towns such as Didcot and Bicester, whereas Oxford City Council wants to expand Oxford. The battleground has become Green Belt land south of Grenoble Road where as many as 3,000 new homes could be built.
City council's chief planner Michael Crofton-Briggs said realistically it will be at least eight years before bulldozers could be seen on land off Grenoble Road, and there would be many opportunities for the public to be consulted on any such plans. He added: "It may well be that people living in edges of Oxford are concerned about new homes being built in the Green Belt but equally there is another voice, which is those who are in very serious need of decent homes."