PLANS for up to 40 houses at an area of land called Butts Piece are progressing despite concerns over sewage treatment being raised.

A reserved matters application for the properties – off Main Road, Stanton Harcourt – has been approved by West Oxfordshire District Council.

The proposed estate is to the north of another new development in the area, Hayfield Green.

That site, which was once a Second World War airfield, is being turned into a development of 66 houses and bungalows.

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However, in a consultee comment, Stanton Harcourt Parish Council’s clerk Trudi Gasser, raised queries with regards to sewage treatment.

The comment read: “Our local sewage treatment plant at Stanton Harcourt has a licence to discharge raw sewage into the watercourse if the volume exceeds specified levels.

“It seems incongruous to add additional housing whilst Thames Water is unable to process current volumes of sewage without the need to dump untreated sewage in the rivers.”

The comment also highlighted traffic concerns and called for the creation of two footpaths.

It read: “No vehicles associated with the development should travel through the centre of the historical village of Stanton Harcourt or pass our primary school because the footpaths are narrow.

“No vehicles (commercial, staff or visitors) associated with the development should park on the village roadways or within the village hall car park, they should all be retained on site.

“If the planning application is approved, we would strongly recommend that a safe footpath is created across Stanton Harcourt Green.”

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A plea for a footpath between the Hayfield Green development and Butts Piece was also made.

Despite the parish council comments, Thames Water reported that it had no objection to the application.

The utility company’s consultee comment read: “Thames Water would advise that with regard to foul water sewerage network infrastructure capacity, we would not have any objection to the above planning application, based on the information provided.

“The application indicates that surface water will not be discharged to the public network and as such Thames Water has no objection, however approval should be sought from the lead local flood authority.

“Should the applicant subsequently seek a connection to discharge surface water into the public network in the future then we would consider this to be a material change to the proposal, which would require an amendment to the application at which point we would need to review our position.”

The new estate is set to include 16 ‘affordable dwellings’ and 24 ‘open market dwellings’.

These are comprised of properties ranging from one to five bedrooms.