CONTROVERSIAL plans for 100 new homes in Eynsham look set to go ahead after gaining approval from the ruling cabinet at West Oxfordshire District Council.

The houses 50 of which will be affordable homes for local people seem destined for land between the village and the B4449 to its east.

The ruling Conservative cabinet has been finalising the West Oxfordshire Local Plan 2011.

The Eynsham east site was included in the plan last year, when the council accepted a Government inspector's advice to build houses at two sites in Eynsham and Woodstock, rather than one large site in Woodstock.

When these changes were put out to consultation, 123 people from Eynsham wrote to object, with two in support.

Arguing at the meeting last weekwed apr 19 for the development to be scrapped, Eynsham councillor David Rossiter said: "I can't support the inclusion of this plan in light of permission being granted for affordable housing at Chilbridge Road, to the west of Eynsham, and in particular, because of information about the dangers of that road."

Access to the development is intended to be from the B4449. In previous local plans, the highways department at Oxfordshire County Council had ruled out building on the site, because of the dangers posed by the busy road. But it has since withdrawn its objection, saying the majority of accidents happen near the junction with the A40 and the junction with the Swinford toll bridge.

Mr Rossiter also argued a recent decision to grant permission for 40 affordable homes at Chilbridge Road meant Eynsham east was no longer necessary.

Commenting on the changes to the plan, councillor Warwick Robinson said: "It's getting like the Okey Cokey you take something in, you put something out.

"The most fundamental thing is that everybody on this council agrees our overriding objective is to provide affordable housing. If we now remove Eynsham from our plan, we're taking up to 50 affordable houses out of the mix, without any suggestion for an alternative."

Senior planning officer, Tina Rowley, warned councillors they would have to look again at the site 'sooner rather than later' if they rejected it.

The cabinet voted unanimously to include Eynsham east, and a final decision will be made at a full council meeting on Wednesday this week.

Speaking after the meeting, Eynsham resident Alan Minto said: "This is a conservation area and a greenfield site, but the council just seems to be able to ride roughshod over the rules.

"It will be a different village than it was before, and not for the better. Tina Rowley said in all of those 123 objections, not one raised an issue that was of any importance, and I just can't believe that."