A developer is appealing against decisions by two councils to refuse planning permission for over 100 new houses to be built on farmland in Oxford.

Warwickshire-based Cilldara Group (Headington) Ltd applied for outline planning permission for 121 new homes and an 80-bed care home on land at Bayswater Farm on the outskirts of Headington.

The site is part of the land north of Bayswater Brook, an area earmarked for 1,100 new homes to be built in the South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2035.

The vast majority of the proposed scheme is in South Oxfordshire but South Oxfordshire District Council refused the application in April.

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Two small areas of the site came under Oxford City Council’s planning committee remit and that committee unanimously refused the application for a second time in May.

The grounds included access issues, lack of a highways assessment, insufficient walking and cycling and loss of trees.

Cilldara said that the affordable homes would help cater for the 6,771 people waiting for a home in South Oxfordshire and Oxford city.

(Image: Cilldara Group/South Oxfordshire District Council)

A planning document stated: "The substantial area of open space will include an extensive network of routes which connect into the wider pedestrian and cycle network."

It said this will "promote interaction between the new and existing community, as well as health and wellbeing".

However, the plans were strongly opposed by local councillors and residents and drew hundreds of objections.

Committee member Louise Upton said after the meeting there were "local worries about increase in traffic along what are currently very quiet roads".

Barton and Sandhills ward councillor Mike Rowley said: "In terms of cars there are just those two routes out on to the A40 and so there are undoubtedly more challenges in encouraging active travel.

"It's definitely more of a challenge to promote active travel when you don't have decent bus services and you'll need to have a decent bike to be able to cope with those hills."

Barton and Sandhills ward councillor Jabu Nala-Hartley said she was against the plans in the run-up to the decision being made mainly on "environmental grounds".

Residents from the Save our Sandhills community group also staged a protest at the proposed site.

Householder Michael March said: "I can see no justification for concreting over Bayswater Farm Field now when it has resisted repeated developers' attempts to do so over the past 65 years or so.

"And the reasons that have been given for refusing permission for development are as valid today as they ever were, if not more so."

A government planning inspector will now decide whether to grant permission.