RESIDENTS in the villages of Caversfield, Launton and Stratton Audley, are linking up to object to around 1,000 homes being built on an RAF airfield.

They want to stop their communities being merged with Bicester.

Parish councillors are meeting to warn householders of the threat and to encourage them to write their own letters of opp- osition to Cherwell District Council by October 25.

This is the last date for observations on the draft Local Plan before a public inquiry next summer.

The RAF Bicester airfield was chosen for housing after months of wrangling by district councillors. Many wanted it to go on farmland between Bicester and Chesterton, known as the south-west option.

Caversfield Parish Council chairman Odette Phipps said the combined objection was designed to alert residents to the danger of villages losing their identities.

Mrs Phipps added: "People should realise this is the time to object, not when the bulldozers move in. By then, it will be too late." Simon Goss, chairman at Stratton Audley, said: "We are in full support for the commonsense approach that the houses should be built at the south-west. This would prevent the ultimate chaos the extra traffic would create if these houses were built on the airfield."

Supporters of the south-west option say it would be closer to the town centre, Bicester Village, Tesco, the M40 and A34, would bring road improvements and would help commercial leisure facilities to be provided in the same area of town.