Plans for a sports pavilion on a site that was originally earmarked for a secondary school have been criticised by residents of a new estate.
Vistry Homes Limited has applied to West Oxfordshire District Council for a sports pavilion next to playing pitches at Windrush Place at West Witney.
The building on land off Centenary Way is a planning obligation under the outline permission granted for the estate.
Oxfordshire County Council has said the land is not needed for a secondary school, however, the developers must still make a significant financial contribution towards improving existing local secondary schools Henry Box School and/or Wood Green School.
The consortium has already built two full-size football pitches and the pavilion will be designed and constructed to the Sport England standard specification.
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A design and access planning document says there will be four separate team changing rooms and showers (each for up to 20 people), an officials' changing room with a shower, wash basin and bench space, eight WCs for use by playing fields users and equipment storage space.
There will also be a car park for a minimum of 60 cars.
The proposals have been presented to West Oxfordshire District Council and Witney Town Council and "an enlarged multi-functional clubroom has been provided in response to Town Council comments", say planning documents.
A kitchen next to the clubroom with a service hatch means it "should be capable of providing a social space before, during and after the sporting activities and able to offer for sale food and drink. It may be used in the evenings for functions and meetings and large enough to accommodate required numbers."
The application says that as the county council formally confirmed in December that the land is not required for a school "a full planning application for 74 dwellings has been prepared in respect of that land and is being submitted concurrently with this application".
As part of residents' feedback on Windrush Place development plans as a whole, the pavilion proposals drew criticism.
One said there were two cricket teams in Witney with almost nowhere to play.
They said: "We're getting a tiny sports shed, a few changing rooms and a storage room. Houses seem to be taking priority. I'm not expecting West Witney, with a social club etc, but something more than four changing rooms was at least my lowest expectations.
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"I'm disgusted and appalled that in the chance to provide more for the town on this estate, we will have ended up with the only green, open, playing space/sport space as two football pitches and a shed.
"We HAVE to start doing better, otherwise in the next 20/25 years sports will have no place in Witney at all."
On the West Oxfordshire District Council planning portal there were four support comments, saying the pavilion would promote neighbourliness.
One said: "This is great idea and needed for the local community."
Another said: "The sports pavilion should be encouraged as a community hub as a means of bringing residents together."
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