FRUSTRATED parish councillors have branded plans to build 2,750 houses on land around their village a ‘personal attack’.

Eynsham Parish Council representatives believe West Oxfordshire District Council’s decision to allocate its entire share of Oxford city’s unmet housing need to the area is due to deteriorating relations between the two.

The housing will be split between a 2,200-home garden village set to be built north of the A40 near Eynsham and 550 out of 1,000 houses allocated west of the village.

A consultation period on the garden village ended on Friday, while residents can have their say on the west Eynsham development until September 21.

However parish councillors feel residents have been marginalised throughout the process, leading to accusations that the district council is ‘dumping’ its share on Eynsham.

There is also a belief that aspects of the Eynsham Neighbourhood Plan, which is currently being re-drafted, have been ‘cherry-picked’ to suit the district but not the village.

Gordon Beech, Eynsham Parish Council chairman, said: “Residents feel badly treated – both consultations have cherry-picked the bits they liked out of the neighbourhood plan and left out bits they don’t like.

“We feel our neighbourhood plan has been abused.”

Vice chairman Peter Emery stood down as a district councillor in May, almost a year after withdrawing his support for the garden village.

He said: “If we’d decided to take 2,750 houses then fine, but putting them all in one place looks personal.

“It’s been very difficult to maintain good relations with them.”

The developments form part of West Oxfordshire District Council’s Local Plan 2031, which would see 16,000 houses built in the district over the next 13 years.

Eynsham residents have organised several protested against the garden village, while around 30 campaigners attended a district council cabinet meeting in June holding placards.

However there is still a feeling that villagers’ views are not being taken into account, with Mr Emery saying the thought of tweaking the local plan left the district council was ‘paralysed with fear’.

Parish councillor Richard Andrews added: “West Oxfordshire District Council leadership is very weak with a propensity to bully.

“They have a tendency to blame Eynsham which is what bullies do - they blame those they’re abusing.”

But Jeff Haine, district council cabinet member for strategic housing and development, defended the plans.

He said: "There’s no vendetta against Eynsham, it’s purely locational – we picked the area because of its close proximity to Oxford.

“The overall figure was decided between the districts and the city of Oxford and then portioned out.

“We’re not willing to change that at this stage because I haven’t seen anything to indicate it should be a lower number.”