PLANS to build a small children’s home in the village of Aston have been passed by Oxfordshire County Council despite objections from district counterparts.

The single-storey building on Back Lane, four-and-a-half miles south of Witney, will house four children aged between 12 and 17 in a bid to address the county’s need to increase its capacity for the children it cares for.

The unit will also provide accommodation for two staff with a council report stating the new home “is needed due to the closure of a former home at Maltfield House, to reduce out of county placements and accommodate cared-for children closer to their homes”.

Rooflights and a basketball court were removed and design elements tweaked in response to objections from West Oxfordshire District Council.

The county’s report concluded that “the proposals comply with development plan policies relating to amenity, transport, biodiversity, drainage and natural resources”.

It acknowledged that “development plan policies promoting good design and protecting the historic environment are less supportive” but added: ”Given the strong need for the development and the lack of a suitable alternative site, the public benefits of the development are considered to outweigh the harm.”

Lib Dem councillor Dan Levy, representing Eynsham, who serves on the county and district, summed up the mood.

“You have a difficult decision to make and if I were in your shoes, I would be fairly conflicted,” he said. 

He noted the overwhelming need for places in children’s homes and support for the project from the community but highlighted the issues with sewage capacity in the area.

“I can confirm the parish council objects to any application that tries to connect to the main sewage network because that network does not work,” he said.

“There is a large flooding problem in Aston exacerbated by the recent developments there, it is so extreme that not infrequently sewage backs up into people’s houses. I have huge sympathy with the parish council’s suggestion that there should be a septic tank.”

He said the district’s objections were “not misguided nimbyism” but an attempt to protect the local plan and not build on green space.

It took more than an hour of debate to settle the issue but county councillors voted unanimously in favour provided a septic tank to mitigate the pressure on the sewage system be factored in unless the need for one is proven to be impractical. 

Councillor David Rouane, representing Didcot Ladygrove, said: “I am broadly supportive of this. The local plan says we should not build there unless there is an exceptional need for a particular type of housing, that is why previous applications (for other developments) were rejected and the reason why this should be accepted.”

Councillor Richard Webber (Lib Dem, Sutton Courtenay & Marcham) noted “some anxieties over what sort of precedent this sets” to justify other types of development on green spaces and asked for it to be noted that it should not be seen in that light.