A PROPOSED housing estate that would increase the size of a village by more than 20 per cent has come under fire from a councillor.

Gladman, which describes itself as “one of the UK’s largest speculative developers”, has revealed plans to build 75 homes in Kirtlington near Bicester.

The company wants to demolish a bungalow and agricultural buildings on farmland off Oxford Close to make way for the new estate.

But Cherwell district councillor for the village Simon Holland said the proposition would be unpopular with residents.

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Mr Holland, who lives in the village, said: “We know how many houses we want in the village and 75 is way too many.

“The school is already full and the extra traffic will be unwelcome.”

Mr Holland said there had been consistent, low-level development in Kirtlington for 20 years, turning it from a small village into a large one.

But he added: “If we are to be sustainable we can build a few houses each year, if they are built well.”

He said the Cherwell planning committee would look on the proposal “unfavourably” for the same reasons as he did.

Emma Berrecloth-Bale, who lives in Port Way north of Kirtlington, said with 13,000 homes due to be built in Bicester to convert it into a “garden city”, the 75 homes in Kirtlington paled in comparison.

She said: “There are far more alarming things going on. I think the general development in Oxfordshire is pretty alarming, given the state of the A34.”

Gladman has submitted a “screening opinion” application to the council, to find out if an Environmental Impact Assessment would be needed for a full application.

The firm pointed out that Cherwell cannot currently demonstrate a five-year supply for housing land as required by Government, which this would help meet.

Spokesman James Podesta said: “We are aware of concerns about capacity at local schools and increased traffic.

“With regards to primary school impact, we understand the proposed development will have a small additional impact and through the normal course of a planning application consultation exercise we are happy to consider any request for a contribution to mitigate this impact.

“We do not consider that there will be a significant secondary school impact and would therefore not envisage a contribution request, but would again consider all contribution requests against the usual criteria.

“In terms of the access and projected traffic impact, the site can be safely accessed via a priority junction on Lince Lane together with a right turn facility into the site on the outside of the bend in the middle of the site frontage.”

The council has said it will make a final decision on the application by Wednesday, January 28.

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