BUSINESSES on a disused airbase fear their livelihoods will be at risk if planning chiefs enforce strict rules on how the site should be used.

Dozens of businesses moved on to the base at Upper Heyford, near Bicester, after the US Air Force left in 1994.

But now they claim some of the site's 1,000 jobs are at risk under a planning blueprint approved by Cherwell District Council last month.

The North Oxfordshire Consortium, a group of housing developers that owns the base, shares the concerns.

Chief executive Keith Watson said Cherwell's plans to limit on-site car journeys, open up public access and replace family homes with single-occupancy houses were the main problems.

Logistics firm QEK, which employs 550 staff, claims Cherwell wants it to reduce the number of cars it stores on the base from 8,500 to about 3,000.

Boss Jim Olexa said: "We would not keep 550 jobs. If in five years we have to reduce the area we use to 14 acres, then we will have to consider relocating to a district that will welcome so many skilled jobs."

Although his firm didn't want to move, Mr Olexa reminded the council that QEK was the fourth largest employer in Cherwell and pumped £2m a month into the local economy through its payroll.

Ray Clarke, of record management firm Datacare, said the rules would mean only two vehicles a day could visit his offices in one of the former aircraft shelters.

Mr Clarke, whose firm employs 35 people, said: "It doesn't bear thinking about what might happen on this base if Cherwell District Council do what they say they will.

"Rather than helping businesses to expand and stay, they are making it as difficult as possible."

But George Reynolds, Cherwell's development portfolio holder, said planning delays had caused the current situation.

He said: "These businesses believed they were in a permanent situation. They are now realising they are not. Thais change been on the cards for ten years.

"The problem is it's not entirely anyone's fault."

Mr Reynolds said it was important to create a balanced community and Cherwell would do its best to keep the site's existing tenants.

He said: "Some businesses will stay, some will go. We are doing our level best to keep the businesses that want to stay."

  • The North Oxfordshire Consortium is preparing a planning application for the site, which will include 1,000 houses, a supermarket, two or three smaller shops, a school and museum.