SEVERAL major and controversial planning applications for southern Oxfordshire are recommended to be approved tonight.

A 158-home estate plan for Drayton Road, Abingdon, is among the schemes to be decided at the Vale of White Horse District Council planning meeting. It has proved controversial because of the amount of traffic the homes would be expected to add to Drayton Road.

A similar plan was refused by the Vale at first, but has since been given permission after Oxfordshire County Council approved two new pedestrian crossings nearby.

Developer Taylor Wimpey now owns the land and submitted the second application, the one due to be decided tonight, as a back-up in case the first was not approved. Approval tonight, as recommended by Vale planning officers, would give the developer two options for the land.

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Two other planning applications, for 240 homes and 59 homes respectively in Shrivenham, are also recommended for approval.

Another application is a revised scheme for a 2,500- home estate at Grove Airfield which was already given outline approval. In the new version, the developers moved the main entrance road to the estate, off Newlands Drive, approximately 70m.

The final application to be decided is a plan to convert a former Volvo garage in Wantage to 14 flats.

The meeting will be held at The Beacon, Portway, Wantage, from 6.30pm.

The public are welcome.