Baldry and Howell go head-to-head with Flint (From Oxford Mail)

Baldry and Howell go head-to-head with Flint

12:29pm Saturday 19th July 2008 in

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Oxfordshire MPs Tony Baldry and John Howell are set for a showdown meeting with housing minister Caroline Flint on Monday.

And the Tory duo are sure to put two controversial housing developments in the county at the top of the agenda.

On Friday, the Oxford Mail revealed that Communities Secretary Hazel Blears had paved the way for a mammoth 4,000-housing development on land south of Grenoble Road on the edge of Oxford.

The news was welcomed by Oxford City Council, which has put it on a collision course with colleagues in south Oxfordshire.

The two authorities will now have to met to thrash out a way forward.

Part of the development land falls within south Oxfordshire, in Mr Howell's constituency.

Meanwhile, debate continues to rumble on about the merits of the eco-town proposal at Weston Otmoor, one of the so-called "Brown's Town's", that Mr Baldry is vehemently opposed to.

No final decision has been made on the merits of the scheme, which planners claimed could take at least 15,000 new homes and provide rapid transport links to Oxford and London.

Mr Baldry said: "The fact is the Weston Otmoor proposal is a completely friendless policy supported so far only by the developers and the Government.

"Every organisation concerned with the countryside, environment and ecology, is opposed to this site."