Far from quiet on Weston Front

A settlement of 15,000 new eco-homes near Weston-on-the-Green had made it on to the Government shortlist of 15 proposed schemes, with ten expected to be built.

Stretching across two sides of the A34, from Weston-on-the-Green in the west to the M40 in the east, from RAF Weston-on-the-Green in the north to the Oxford-Bicester railway line in the south, the site totals almost 2,000 acres.

While many in the county refused to take the scheme seriously, Weston-on-the-Green residents had been preparing for the worst, months before the announcement by Housing Minister Caroline Flint.

"This is precisely why we formed the action group in December," said Mr Tony Henman, father of the former world No 4 tennis player Tim.

Mr Henman senior, who has lived in the village for 40 years, added: "The village is resolved to defeat the proposed plans for Weston Otmoor by the developers Parkridge, and the landowners who have sold options."

Events have shown the villagers had been absolutely right to recognise the real possibility of one of the so-called 'Brown Towns' being created around the most traffic-clogged corner of Oxfordshire, where the congested A34 meets the slow-moving M40.

The fact that part of the site is in the Green Belt and contains a site of special scientific interest has not put off the Government, nor the fact that the massive site being put forward is bisected by the trunk road, Details about what was being proposed had been comparatively sketchy.

But there was also clear evidence that the developers were hardly time wasters.

Parkridge, with offices in London, Solihull, Warsaw, Paris, Barcelona, Milan and Moscow, is part-owned by the global American property company US Reit ProLogics.

Previous projects in the UK include Dickens Heath Village in Solihull, the Paragon Park Urban Village in Coventry, Northampton's Grange Park extension and Brighton Marina.

The value of its completed UK developments is put at £2bn.

But even for this company, what is being proposed in Oxfordshire is massive.

"Parkridge have a superb track record of delivering planning consent, infrastructure and buildings across all classes," the company says. "The scale may be much greater but we are not daunted by the task - it is what we do."

What it wants to do in Oxfordshire is build a settlement bigger than Bicester that would be home to 25,000 people, growing eventually to 35,000, with ten schools (two secondary, eight primary) and 15,000 properties offering a range of dwelling types, including affordable homes.

As reported in last week's The Oxford Times, the developers are proposing that the main High Street, with shops and houses, would be built over the A34, "so the visual experience for the pedestrian and shopper is undiminished".

The glossy document submitted to Government even shows pictures of Florence's Ponte Vecchio and Bath's Pulteney Bridge to show what can be learnt from history - even at the rather less than historic location of junction nine of the M40.

Parkridge already controls 1,600 acres of the site through options to buy farmland from a consortium of landowners. It is now in talks to acquire the remaining 325 acres from the Ministry of Defence to buy an airstrip used as a parachute training drop zone.

Yet remarkably, the Housing Minister's statement referred to Weston Otmoor as a scheme to build between 10,000 and 15,000 homes "on brownfield land three miles south of Bicester".

The chairman of Oxfordshire CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), Bruce Tremayne, says the vast bulk of the site is green fields.

"The airfield is the only brownfield area and that makes up about ten per cent of the site. The land east of the A34 is Green Belt. Green Belt land makes up about a third of the site. I think the senior civil servant who briefed the minister has made a mistake."

He feared "the so-called eco credentials" of the new settlement represented a smokescreen for making house-building on green fields appear more palatable. For despite talk about public transport and car targets, the CPRE estimates Weston Otmoor would lead to at least 7,500 extra car movements a day on the A34 and M40.

The local wildlife trust, BBOWT, fears the scheme would result in the loss of one of its most important nationally-designated wildlife sites, threatening an ancient woodland site, a nature reserve and numerous protected and priority species.

For the proposed site includes Woodsides Meadow Nature Reserve, and other meadows owned and managed by BBOWT. The grassland habitats found at this site are extremely rare, supporting important species, including orchids, snipe and curlew.

BBOWT conservation officer Ellie Seaborne said: "We just don't understand how development that would result in damage to a nationally important, protected habitat can be called an 'eco-town'.

"It makes a mockery of the term 'sustainable' development. BBOWT's Woodsides Meadow Nature Reserve forms part of the land that will be affected."

The trust also complains that no attempt has been made to consult it about the scheme.

Ms Seaborne said: "The first we saw of these proposals was after the announcement at the beginning of April, and clearly the plans left us shocked and very concerned."

BBOWT warns that if the scheme were to go ahead, with the nature sites included, it would send out a dangerous message about what the Government considers to be 'sustainable' development.

In Weston-on-the-Green, villagers were angry to learn that their local Cherwell district councillor Neil Godwin was, in fact, one of the landowners involved with Parkridge. Parkridge has an option to buy about 200 acres of his farmland on the south-western section of the site.

John Mair, a university lecturer who has lived in the village for more than 25 years, is among those calling for Mr Godwin to resign from the council.

Mr Mair said it was intolerable that their councillor would have to leave the room when the issue of a new settlement for 35,000 people was being discussed.

He said: "I really cannot see how he can continue. You have to ask yourself who is he now representing? There is a clear conflict of interest. He cannot speak up for the village on the biggest issue that the village has faced. He should go, and go now."

Mr Godwin, who developed a successful ice cream business at his farm outside the village, said: "So far everything that has been done has been Government-led.

"I have to declare an interest. If the issue is discussed, I am not allowed to speak or vote," said Mr Godwin, who ironically is Cherwell District Council's portfolio holder for communications.

But he admitted the shortlisting had changed the situation and he would be continually reviewing his position on the council.

"Cherwell council is very much against it. Tim Hallchurch, the councillor for Otmoor, will be putting the views of local people. If the council had been divided, I would have resigned. If it ever looked like being a close decision, I would go. I understand the point of view in Weston-on-the-Green. I would not want to be restricting their democratic rights."

Many of his council colleagues and Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell say the eco-town would affect plans to revitalise Bicester, which could end up as Weston Otmoor's neglected, ageing, ugly sister, condemned to be in the economic shadow of the "bright, shiny" newcomer.

But what Parkridge has pledged to do is revitalise the whole of Oxfordshire's public transport system, with offers of massive investment that simply cannot be ignored.

Most striking is the developer's offer to fund the long awaited East-West Rail Link, which is estimated to cost £190m.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint could not have failed to be impressed with a pitch that said: "A key and indeed fundamental component of the scheme is the delivery of the East-West Rail Link between Oxford and Milton Keynes, which will be funded by the developers and implemented as part of it.

"A new station will be built at Weston Otmoor. Up to five trains per hour in each direction (to Oxford in six minutes) will be provided. A chord line to Bicester will mean a one hour journey time to London."

Residents would be provided with free tram and bus services around the town and into Oxford, with developers also proposing a large park-and-ride that will "take car traffic away from the motorway junction and will provide a quicker, more direct alternative for car commuters to Oxford".

The company is bullish, talking about the first residents moving into homes by 2012.

Roger Sporle, of Parkridge, said: "This bid is bold, it is ambitious, and it meets the Government's challenge of delivering sustainable, zero carbon housing.

"We are committed to making sure the proposals work at every level by involving all key stakeholders over the coming months. The bid will now undergo a process of public consultation and a final decision on which bids will go forward for consideration under the planning process is expected in the autumn."

Given that the 15,000 properties would include a significant number of affordable homes, Mr Mitchell is not alone in wondering how the figures stack up.

But the big question is whether the views of County Hall and local councillors ultimately matter?

Michael Gibbard, Cherwell's portfolio holder for planning, said: "The Housing Minister has given an assurance that the eco-town will be subject to a planning application and full local consultation.

"It is difficult to see how this proposal, one third of which is in the Green Belt, can ever meet the requirements of the Cherwell Local Plan and the Oxfordshire Structure Plan. I am concerned that the Government's promised planning policy statement on eco-towns, published in July, will render our current policies ineffective."

Mr Henman, who is busily organising a public meeting Weston-on-the-Green village hall for April 23, warns that Weston-on-the-Green would be prepared to go to judicial review.

For Weston Front it could be a long, hard campaign.