Opponents fighting plans to build 75,000 new homes in Oxfordshire were today sensing victory after the Government announced a U-turn.

A report that suggested thousands of houses should be built by 2016 met widespread opposition in the county.

Protesters feared that Oxfordshire would be turned into a concrete jungle, and claimed that many of the planned homes would have to be built on green belt land.

As our graphic shows, plans for thousands of new homes have already been submitted.

Now Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has announced that the overall project to build 1.1m homes in the South East will be scaled down, leading to hopes that Oxfordshire's figure will also fall. The final figures are expected at the end of this month or early March.

The climbdown follows Government concern that the house-building programme would exacerbate the North-South divide by diverting investment from the North and other regions.

Ian Walker, principal planning officer with Oxfordshire County Council, welcomed the news, and said: "One of our main concerns was that many of these homes would have to be built on greenfield sites, which goes against Government policy. "There has been a lack of investment in transport and the present infrastructure could not cope with 75,000 new homes."

Witney North county councillor Brenda Churchill said that any scaling down of the plans was good news for areas that were already facing large house-building programmes. She said: "Another 75,000 homes in Oxfordshire would turn the county into a concrete jungle and would spoil our beautiful countryside. I have no idea where they plucked this figure from, but I would welcome any reduction because the county simply can't cope with it.

"It's not merely roads that would be a problem. The number of doctors' surgeries, community centres and general facilities in each area means that this housing increase is ludicrous."

Background on the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions' plans can be found at www.planning.detr.gov.uk/sehou/index.htm

Story date: Wednesday 02 February

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