A FRESH bid to build 300 homes on a Bicester meadow has been met with criticism as campaigners continue their fight to keep it development-free.

Gavray Drive has been subject to repeated plans for development and Locke Associates is the latest to put forward proposals.

Part of the site sits within a conservation target area (CTA), recognised by local councils and conservation bodies as a bio- diversity hotspot.

This does not protect it by law from development, but campaigners are arguing that the Cherwell Local Plan earmarks it as somewhere that should be development-free.

But developer Locke Associates is saying a “balanced approach” is allowed and is hoping to build 180 homes on land west of Langford Brook – which runs across the site – and 120 homes east of the brook.

Campaigner John Broad, who lives in Langford Village, said: “The Local Plan is very clear that there is no development on the CTA. It is shocking they think they can do something like that.

“The importance of these CTAs is that they are a corridor for wildlife.”

Plans for 500 homes at the Gavray Drive site were put forward in 2006, before being scaled back to 300 homes.

Locke Associates representative David Keene told a meeting of Bicester Town Council: “The CTA affects land east of Langford Brook and does extend into Gavray Drive West. We are not proposing to build in that area at all, it is open space for places such as play areas, etc. So if there are any apprehension for that area, we don’t touch that.

“The application for Gavray Drive East we are still thinking a bit about, but in broad terms we are keeping clear of the local wildlife site. It will take a third of the CTA, not all of it.”

Town councillor Dan Sames said: “The local plan is quite clear no building should take place on the CTA at all. It does not have to be a physical building but anything like a play area.

“When you look at the whole of that site to deliver 300 houses, I cannot see that happening.”