RESIDENTS in Kingston Bagpuize are concerned their village will be unable to cope with a new development of up to 280 homes.

District councillors at a Vale of White Horse planning committee on Wednesday approved outline permission for the development.

It will see the homes built on land south of the A420 and east of the A415 Witney Road, with an access point along the latter.

Roy Wolfe, of Frax Close, said he was worried about the impact the development would have on the John Blandy estate and the primary school on the other side of Witney Road.

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The 68-year-old said: “Money has been set aside to expand the primary school.

“But the school is in the middle of the estate and residents already have problems with people parking outside their homes to get to the school.

“With this new development it is estimated that another 73 children will be coming, and it is just going to exacerbate the problem.

“There has been another new development by the estate and traffic to that development goes down one road which has become a bottleneck. Safety is a huge concern here but there’s no provision to deal with the issue.”

Over the past few years there have been several new developments in the village.

Mr Wolfe added: “The chairman of the parish council said four years ago there were 850 houses in the village.

“But because of this development and others already agreed, there will be a total of 700 more houses, nearly doubling the size of the village.”

Brian Forster, the chairman of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor parish council, said: “The big issue really is traffic concerns around the A420.

“Cars come round quite fast and there is going to be an access point to this new site from the A415 which is dangerous and will cause so much congestion.

“There’s not even a plan for a controlled pedestrian crossing to help people cross the A415.”

The application, submitted by Mactaggart and Mickel Homes Ltd, would also see land given to the parish council for community use in connection with a new Scout hall.

Speaking after the meeting, ward councillor Eric Batts said he would like to see the Section 106 contribution spent on running a vital bus service.

He said: “We do not have a doctors' surgery in the village, the nearest ones are in Faringdon and Abingdon.

“There are no plans to build a new surgery in the village, so the contributions need to be spent on keeping the X15 [bus] service running, which is currently under threat by the county council who might withdraw the service.

“The village has had various funds from Section 106 money but this is such a large development it is going to be quite a lot of pressure on the village’s infrastructure.”

The application was approved with the condition that 40 per cent of the development would be affordable housing.