Villagers fear urban sprawl is going to overwhelm homes

More than 3,000 extra houses could be built around villages between the city and Abingdon to meet Oxford City Council’s housing need.

Because the city council cannot meet its target for up to 32,000 new homes by 2031 it has called on the districts to help out.

Vale of White Horse District Council has said the fringes of Oxford and areas surrounding Abingdon would provide a “good opportunity” to meet this need.

The area in question contains villages such as Cumnor, Radley, Kennington, Kingston Bagpuize and Wootton.

Graham Steinsberg, leader of campaign group Save Radley Village, said Abingdon could end up becoming a suburb of Oxford. He said: “Kennington is already a suburb of Oxford and we could become joined to them, in which case Radley, Kennington and Abingdon would all be part of Oxford.

“The council is just playing a numerical game. We have to accommodate for 3,000 homes because Oxford cannot.”

The Radley resident said the village was already set to double in size to meet the Vale’s housing need and that people were concerned about more development.

He said: “It’s the thought of swallowing villages whole that gives us concern. The villagers are accepting there’s a need for housing, the issue is what it’s going to look like once it’s done.

“We have a nice village shop and recently campaigned to keep the church and it could lose its character in order to hit an unsubstantiated housing target.”

When it came to other areas of the Vale such as Wantage, Didcot, Grove and Faringdon the report said it was “unclear” whether development in those areas would help meet the housing need.

Each of the three other district councils are set to contribute to the housing need that Oxford City cannot meet.

According to an assessment, Oxford’s housing need will be between 24,000 and 32,000 by 2031 and the city council estimates it can only find space for 10,000. Oxford’s unmet housing need would therefore sit between 14,000 and 22,000.

But this figure is disputed by the Vale, South Oxfordshire and Cherwell district councils, which say 16,000 could be built if sites such as Oxford Stadium and Oxford Golf Club were developed.

The report to be discussed by Vale’s cabinet on Friday ignores Oxford’s lower estimate and goes on the basis that 8,000-16,000 homes will have to be met by the other district councils – a figure pulled from the independent Cundall review. It states that in the absence of confirmation from Oxford city it will start searching for areas to put 3,000 homes – a middle range estimate which could climb to 4,000. Vale leader Matthew Barber said more homes were inevitable but that getting a full public process underway was important.

He said: “This is no secret but I’m not sure the public has cottoned on to the idea.

“We had pressure to deliver our own housing need and now face pressure for Oxford’s need.”

“They might have thought the local plan was bad enough but there’s no avoiding this, it’s happening anyway.” He added: “No decisions have been made and we recognise that no community will welcome more housing.

“We will have a public consultation at subsequent stages, this will be done out in the open.”

Mr Barber said beginning the hunt for locations was the Vale “fronting up” and getting on with it.

• Expansion: Abingdon-on-Thames and the Oxford fringe sub-area shown in pink

He said that while it was a reasonable presumption that the homes would come from the area between Abingdon and Oxford, a more detailed assessment of the other areas will be carried out.

Kennington Parish Council chairman Colin Charlett said: “We would certainly be against any more development. Kennington is crammed full.

“There’s already a plan for 200 homes on the south boundary. It’s in Radley parish but will have more of an impact on Kennington.

“We would do all we can to stop the village becoming joined up to Oxford city.”

Councillor for Abingdon Caldecott, Mike Badcock said: “There’s a historic gap that needs to be maintained and there is already new housing planned there in the Local Plan. I certainly would not want it to become a suburb of Oxford.”

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said: “I have sympathies with people in villages between Oxford and Abingdon “The whole purpose was not to have a pepper pot effect of a few houses near every village.

“It should come from large settlements near the city.”

The report will be discussed at Cabinet on Friday.