RESIDENTS in Radley are being promised a new village hall and playing fields if Radley College gets the go-ahead for a housing scheme on Green Belt land.

The famous public school wants to build new homes on the site of the existing village hall and a neighbouring football pitch and sports pavilion on Gooseacre, off Foxborough Road.

The college has told the parish council that as part of the deal it would build a new village hall next to Radley Primary School on Church Road.

It has also offered to create two new playing fields and a children's play area on adjacent farmland.

But with both sites within the Green Belt, the ambitious scheme is expected to be hotly debated.

Villagers will be given details of the scheme at a public meeting on Friday, July 11, which will be addressed by Radley College bursar Richard Beauchamp and the college's architects.

A statement released by Radley Parish Council says: "Following concerns about the present village hall and discussions with Radley College, it has been suggested that there is a possibility of providing a new village hall with integral sports pavilion and two playing fields on a site next to Radley Primary School."

The chairman of the parish council, Jenny Standen, said: "The proposal was made by Radley College who own the freehold of the land where the village hall is sited. The college is proposing to resite and pay for a new village hall on a new site.

"The land in both cases is Green Belt, so various planning restrictions would have to be overcome. It is clearly an interesting opportunity. But if the people of the village are against it, it will not proceed any further."

Basil Crowley, a member of the parish council working party created to examine the proposal, said he believed the scheme would deliver benefits to the village.

He said: "Our village hall is old, costly to maintain and is in need of renovation. But it is really not worth pumping in the money. We need a new village hall and I cannot see any other way of us getting one."

Mr Beauchamp, the college bursar, said: "We discussed a number of ways that it might be funded, one of which was to develop housing." He said it was too early to give details about the number of houses, or the type of homes that might be proposed.