CONTROVERSIAL plans for 200 homes south west of Faringdon should be approved next week, a council planning officer has said.

Vale of White Horse District Council’s Peter Brampton has urged councillors to approve the scheme on Wednesday.

The homes would go on Fernham Fields, east of Coxwell Road, to which the A420 runs along the southern barrier.

Mr Brampton said the land is not earmarked by the council in its “local plan” or major future developments.

But he said it will help the council meet a housing target for the next five years and it is “reasonably well-contained” on the edge of town.

He said the homes “will not have a materially harmful impact on the wider landscape” and it is “deliverable within 18 months”.

But Great Coxwell Parish Council has urged the plan be thrown out by the district council’s planning committee.

They said it will harm the landscape, road safety “will be compromised” and the plans are “overdevelopment of the site”.

There will be “coalesence of Faringdon and Great Coxwell as a result of this development”, it added.

Great Faringdon Town Council and 20 residents also objected, with one telling the district council: “The site is too far removed from the town centre to be a sustainable location for development.”

The committee will meet at 6.30pm in Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon. The public can attend.