New plans for 200 homes just outside an Oxfordshire town have been lodged by a developer. 

Obsidian Strategic has applied to South Oxfordshire District Council for the major scheme to the south of Sires Hill.

As well as the homes, the company also wants to build a special education needs school on the land to the north-eastern edge of the town.

The proposed development will be part of the Garden Town project, which will see 15,050 homes and 20,000 high tech jobs delivered in the greater Didcot area.

The scheme was submitted on September 18 and by Friday, October 4 no public comments had been submitted in support or objection. 

However, Oxfordshire County Council's archaeology department raised an objection. 

They said: “The site is identified to occupy an area of archaeological interest and potential as identified by the heritage statement undertaken by Savills (August 2024) that has now been submitted with this application.

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200-home plan CGI (Image: South Oxfordshire District Council) “This assessment recognises a moderate to high potential for archaeological remains dating from the prehistoric and Roman periods to be present on the application site.

"Geophysical survey conducted across areas of the application site has demonstrated the presence of linear and discrete below ground anomalies, these indicative of a continuation of settlement activity of Iron Age and Roman date that has been recorded immediately to the west.”

They added that an archaeological field evaluation should be completed. 

The application's planning statement argued that the scheme should be granted permission, despite the site being outside the scope of the development plan. 

It said: “It will support the economic objective by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type is available in the right place at the right time to support growth. It is considered the site is in the ‘right place’ given it will result in a logical and natural extension to the Didcot Garden Village which is a highly sustainable town.

"The site’s sustainable location provides good access to employment opportunities in Didcot and across South Oxfordshire.

"The provision of the community/education uses will create jobs for local people to support Didcot’s diverse economy and jobs will be created across the whole site through the construction phase.” 

It added: “The provision of educational and/or community uses, open space, a local equipped area of play and multi-use game pitch on site will also support the social objective by providing accessible services to meet the needs of the community from a health, social, cultural and well-being perspective. 

“The principle of the development does not accord with the development plan. However, this planning statement alongside the supporting technical reports and plans have demonstrated that there are significant benefits to bringing forward the scheme which indicate that the development plan should not be followed in this case.”