CAMPAIGNERS have warned that Bicester is becoming 'grey not green' as plans for a huge new storage and distribution centre began to take shape.

Outline planning permission has already has been granted for the development off Skimmingdish Lane – known as Link 9 – which means there is a broad approval for development to take place on the site.

Developer Albion Land has now submitted a 'screening opinion' planning application – detailing what some of the buildings will look like.

The developer wants to erect seven units to house offices and light industry on the site, which sits between Bicester Airfield and the Wyndham Care Home.

This is opposed to the single, larger building that was originally planned.

Made of cladding, the light and dark grey units will cover 13,586 square metres.

The height of the buildings has not been revealed.

Further phases of the building work, including the building of two much larger units, are expected to be announced at a later date.

Bicester Mayor Les Sibley said that seeing the plans had done little to relieve his concerns about the site.

He said: "This is an industrial development sandwiched in between a care home and a heritage site.

"It won't do any good for the residents.

"There's going to be constant noise and pollution 24 hours a day.

"When they look out at the view, they'll just be met with this hideous thing.

"We've said we want to attract high tech businesses and be a green town but we are defeating our own arguments.

"Instead we seem to be being surrounded by warehouses. Everything is turning grey."

Units will come with parking for HGVs and 159 cars and will be surrounded by a 2m green mesh fence.

Albion Land is proposing to plant trees and hedgerows to mask the buildings from their neighbours.

Between 176 and 289 full time jobs are expected to be created by businesses moving on to the premises.

Work on the first phase of the development began earlier this year including creating an access point from Skimmingdish Lane.

John Broad, the chairman of the Cherwell south branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and a Bicester resident, said this could see trucks turning right to reach the site on a bend.

He said: "From a practical point of view, it strikes me as being a ridiculous place to put a warehouse.

"It's miles from the motorway and you will have trucks turning off day and night on what is already a 50mph road and could soon become a dual carriageway."

Mr Broad also said that the CPRE still had concerns about protecting the important wildlife sites that surround Link 9 and about the possibility of flooding in nearby villages such as Launton.

He said: "This used to be a farming site which absorbs water.

"Now where is that water going to go? We already have problems with flooding in Oxfordshire and this will only make it worse."

A decision will be made on the planning application by November 16.

Albion Land did not respond to a request for comment.