RESIDENTS in Wallingford fear more homes could be built on their doorstep after South Oxfordshire District Council was told to re-examine its housing strategy.

In October last year, the council cut the number of homes proposed for its preferred housing site at Slade End Farm, off Wantage Road, from 750 to 400, believing it could include smaller ‘windfall’ sites as part of the town’s allocation of new homes.

However, Government planning inspector Roy Foster has told the council its strategy needs to be revised, as it can no longer count windfall sites when assessing housing needs until 2027.

That means more houses could be built at the Slade End Farm site.

Steve Teboe, 50, of Wantage Road, who is leading the opposition to the Slade End Farm development proposed by Prupim, said: “I don’t see why Slade End Farm should now take extra homes.

“The council should spread some of the pain to Winterbrook, on the other side of Wallingford.

“Lots of residents will be very upset if the council boosts the allocation for Slade End Farm.”

As part of the core strategy endorsed by the council last year, it was planned to build 400 new homes in the town over the next 16 years, as part of a package of about 10,000 new houses for the district, including about 9,000 in Didcot and 530 at Thame.

But Mr Foster, who is reviewing the strategy, has instructed the council to think again.

Angie Paterson, the council’s cabinet member for planning, said sites for 800 extra homes would have to be allocated.

She added: “We have previously explored the potential for Site B (Slade End Farm) in Wallingford to accommodate more homes than are currently allocated, and we will be looking at this again.”

Council leader Ann Ducker said: “Our preferred approach was to allocate specific sites to meet in full the housing numbers for the first 10 years, and this was strongly supported in the consultation responses.

“We’re absolutely confident that enough homes will be built on windfall sites to allow us to reduce the impact made by large-scale housing sites.

“However, we’ve been told we have to allocate all the homes for the next 15 years to named sites.

“We don’t think this is within the spirit of localism, when we had found a solution that our communities supported.”

Following a review meeting at the council headquarters in Crowmarsh on May 17, Mr Foster told the council that its approach to allocating the required housing numbers was “inconsistent” with national policy.

Ms Paterson said: “It’s very disappointing to see the conclusions the inspector has drawn on our use of windfalls and the district-wide figure for additional homes could be 800.

“Changes need to be made that address the points raised by the planning inspector.

“Given that this is about our strategic sites, this primarily affects Wallingford and Thame. We will have to allocate more housing to the larger villages too.”

Wallingford’s county councillor Lynda Atkins said: “The initial housing assessment was flawed, because it just looked at how many people wanted to live where, and not at how many people our town could accommodate, given the constraints of our town centre and infrastructure for things like parking.”

Mr Foster will decide whether to recommend formal adoption by the council of the strategy later this year, following public hearings in the district next month.