An American billionaire has lodged fresh plans to build a grand new traditional country house in an Oxfordshire village that caught his eye.
Ronald Burkle, a businessman who co-founded the private investment firm Yucaipa Companies, LLC, has applied to West Oxfordshire District Council to introduce the development on 4.37 hectares of farmland in Little Tew between Banbury and Chipping Norton.
Plans for the Cotswolds house also include details of gardens, a stables courtyard, solar panels, a new lake and tree nursery.
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A planning application paper says: "The nearby villages of Little and Great Tew are sited in the famous shoulder district to the Cotswolds, known for its ironstone ridges, and where houses are predominantly stone built.
"They could also be described as self-consciously picturesque environments, especially as manifested in Great Tew, in early 19th century remodellings, and additions to earlier vernacular buildings.
"Little Tew is a well-protected haven of more traditional Oxfordshire vernacular.
"We have taken the ideas suggested by the Design Review Panel and have used them to turn a good ordinary house into what we believe is an exceptional work of architecture."
A previous application from Mr Burkle was refused in December 2022 but the developers have now gone back to the drawing board with "various important matters" being "actioned or progressed in the last 18 months".
The application had been refused for failing to represent a "truly outstanding development" and not meeting specific planning criteria.
Reason for refusal also indicated the proposals would result "in a medium level of less than substantial harm to the setting of the Little Tew Conservation Area and without there being discernible public benefits which would outweigh the identified harm”.
The site is located to the south of the Banbury Road and is made up of eight fields of various sizes, six being in intensive arable cultivation, one being permanent pasture and the remaining field being reverted from arable to grassland.
The house is described as a "satellite of a great estate" such as a "dower house or a hunting lodge".
But it is also referenced as an "adornment to the landscape" rather than its "focal point".
A planning paper adds: "Introducing a new country house, stables, and associated designed estate landscape will change the landscape character from an agricultural landscape to one of a country estate, with estate farmland and designed parkland.
"The critical question is whether this change is beneficial or adverse.
"The landscape evidence bases for West Oxfordshire contain several landscape character types in the broader scale Character Area that represent the site in its baseline and proposed future states."
As well as being a billionaire, Mr Burkle is an activist and fundraiser for the Democratic Party.
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About the author
Noor is the Local Democracy Reporter for Oxfordshire who covers political stories from across the county.
She began working as a journalist in Oxford in September 2023 having graduated from the University of Oxford.
Noor was trained at the News Associates journalism school and can be found on X through the handle @NoorJQurashi
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