CHOLSEY residents have reacted angrily after learning that five million tonnes of sand and gravel could be extracted from nearby fields, after the idea was ruled out last year.

Oxfordshire County Council has proposed allowing minerals extraction between Cholsey and the Wallingford bypass for 25 years.

It has made the U-turn because sites it endorsed last October, at Radley and Nuneham Courtenay, are “unlikely to be deliverable”.

And it said Sutton Courtenay could only provide minerals up to 2030.

Cholsey Parish Council chairman Mark Gray said: “We’re just appalled. We feel like the village is under siege.”

Steve Thompson, spokesman for the anti-quarrying campaign Parishes Against Extraction, said: “Cholsey isn’t one of the parishes we represented but I’m sure the residents of Cholsey will be gutted by this latest decision.”

“It’s not satisfactory for the county council to keep changing its mind on locations for extraction.”

The council said the Cholsey site had “good access to the lorry route network and is closer (by road) to areas of demand for construction materials in southern Oxfordshire”.

Consultation will begin in June or July on proposed sand and gravel extraction in the lower Windrush valley and at Eynsham, Cassington, Yarnton, Sutton Courtenay, Cholsey and Caversham.

Soft sand could be extracted near Faringdon, Tubney, Marcham, Hinton Waldrist and Duns Tew.

Rock could be quarried north-west of Bicester, south of the A40 near Burford and south-east of Faringdon.

A public meeting in Cholsey to discuss the plan will be held at the Scout Hall, in Wallingford Road, on Thursday next week, at 7.30pm. For more information, call Mr Gray on 07971 805416.