Leading businesses, including motor racing team Williams F1, say they will be forced to move if a major housing development in an Oxfordshire village goes ahead.

They have joined forces to fight plans to create hundreds of new homes and two new roads on a disused airfield in Grove, near Wantage.

The companies -- Crown Technology, Grove 2000 and Williams F1 -- which together employ 1,500 people, claim the proposals do not take into account the impact on their businesses or traffic.

At least 750 new homes by 2011 and a new road are being considered as part of the Vale of the White Horse 2011 Local Plan. It also calls for another 1,750 homes to be built in the 10 years up to 2021.

Peter Whitehead, a traffic expert from Glanville Consultants, who carried out a traffic survey on behalf of the businesses, said that any road in the north of the airfield would have little benefit for Grove and Wantage residents.

The three businesses are also urging the local authority to consider an alternative scheme.

The scheme makes use of brownfield land for residential development and significantly reduces the need for roads through virgin farmland.

Racing team owner Sir Frank Williams said the firm had worked with Grove residents, many of whom worked for the company, to reduce the noise generated by the wind tunnels it had built.

He added: "But the best way to avoid the conflicting demands of business and residential land use is to avoid pushing the two competing needs together, especially when other brownfield sites are available in the area."