A HOUSING development that was allowed in 2016 should be denied permission again because it could cause ‘gridlock,' planning officers have said.

In 2016, Vale of White Horse councillors said 93 homes could be built on land north of Appleford Road in Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon, subject to developer contributions being agreed to pay for infrastructure in and around the estate.

But they have never been agreed and so full permission has never been signed off.

Now Vale council has said the plan would not fit in with planning guidelines and would pile extra traffic onto local roads, including Culham Bridge.

The extra traffic means it would not be a ‘sustainable development,’ the authority said.

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Sutton Courtenay Parish Council ‘strongly objects’ to it going ahead, as do 62 residents. Many of those agree that it would mean extra traffic on ‘extremely busy roads…which are already over capacity’.

Oxfordshire County Council has also got worries about how existing roads would cope. It had initially been in favour of it going ahead – but changed its view after it did modelling work at junctions in Culham and Sutton Courtenay.

Its report states: “At peak times queuing at the signalised Culham bridges may result in the blocking of the bridge and adjacent junctions to the north/the signalised junction of the A415 and to the south and the priority junction of Abingdon Road and Appleford Road.

“The blocking back results in a situation akin to gridlock, with queues slow to disperse and highway users performing ‘unorthodox’ manoeuvres and blocking [roads].”

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Plans note the population of Sutton Courtenay could increase by as much as nine per cent if the development is built. In 2011, according to census figures, its population was 2,421 people.

If each planned home had 2.4 residents, 223 residents would live there once all homes have been completed.

But other utility providers, including Thames Water, have no concerns.

O and H Properties, which wants to build the homes, said it has sought to address concerns about traffic – but the county council has retained its objections.

The plan will be decided at a meeting on Wednesday.