Lib-Dems to remove homes site from plan

PLANS to build 3,000 new homes at Chalgrove Airfield could be removed from South Oxfordshire District Council’s local plan.

Liberal Democrats on the council are opposed to the proposal by Homes England, a government agency, to redevelop its land.

Since taking over council leadership from the Conservatives, who allocated the site for housing development in its 2035 local plan, the Lib-Dems have been developing a new local plan, which will go to public consultation early in the new year.

The airfield currently hosts a testing site for ejector seat manufacturer Martin-Baker, which has a lease until 2063.

The Lib-Dems say the site boundary does not allow enough space for the new homes and a realigned runway to test ejector seats that would align with Civil Aviation Authority standards.

Homes England withdrew its original application for outline planning permission in 2021 following criticism by the CAA of the proposed layout of the runway.

However, it is understood the agency has bought land around the site and is working on a fresh application.

The original plans included two primary schools, a secondary school, a sixth-form college, shops, a healthcare hub, community and leisure facilities and 40,000 sq m of employment space. This “new town” would increase the population of Chalgrove from 2,700 to 9,800.

The Lib-Dems say they have found that the “significant change” in social and environmental priorities of the local plan now renders the site unsuitable for
development.

The  new plan will involve delivering planned development within Science Vale, focusing new housing at the garden communities of Didcot, Berinsfield and Dalton Barracks, on brownfield sites.

Councillor Freddie van Mierlo, who represents Watlington on the district council, said: “The development of Chalgrove Airfield would be deeply damaging.  It would create a town the size of Henley in the middle of the countryside with no suitable transport infrastructure.

“In addition, it would threaten the operations of a hugely successful British exporter of defence equipment, vital to UK armed forces and allies around the world. This is not a derelict brownfield site, it is an active airfield, important to the local economy and to our forces.”

He said Henley MP John Howell had refused to support the campaign against the proposal.

“His government forced it through against the wishes of elected local councillors using special powers,” he said. “Residents and Lib-Dem councillors have long known that delivering housing on this site is not possible.

“The Conservatives didn’t listen and ploughed on regardless, wasting more than £12 million of taxpayer money through Homes England, pursuing their dream of a building at any cost over rural Oxfordshire”.

In 2020, Mr Howell said it would not be “proper” to remove the airfield from the local plan, which had been in progress since 2014 and the subject to more consultation than normal.