A south Oxfordshire school has submitted plans to build 50 new homes on a playing field nearby. 

Chiltern Edge Secondary School, in Reade's Lane, Sonning Common, wants to redevelop its playing fields and demolish a former kindergarten building and multi-use games area to make way for the homes. 

The application has been submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council by Deanfield Homes and Maiden Erlegh Trust. 

This is a resubmission of an application for the same site which was refused by the district council in November last year, as planners said it would cause the loss of a playing field without mitigation. 

READ MORE: Bicester MP slams proposals to close London Road Crossing

Chiltern Edge Secondary School plans (Image: South Oxfordshire District Council) The scheme includes 40 per cent affordable homes and the school has submitted the application in order to "raise funds to deliver urgently needed improvements to its infrastructure and facilities, ensuring the future viability of the school".

On the application's planning statement, it said: “The site area includes existing playing fields which are surplus to the school’s requirements, as well as a underutilised tarmac multi-use games area (MUGA), and a single-storey prefabricated building that was the former location of the Kingfisher Kindergarten day nursery. 

“The existing MUGA is of poor quality and is not floodlit, and owing to its location away from the sports hall and changing facilities, both the MUGA and this area of the playing fields are more commonly used informally by students during break-times rather than formally to deliver the school curriculum. 

“The Kingfisher Kindergarten has been relocated adjacent to the school’s main reception area and the prefabricated building is temporarily used by Bishopswood School. As such, there is no community use of the existing site.”

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About the author  

Toby is a senior reporter who has a particular interest in covering planning and local government. 

He joined in September 2024 having been a reporter at the Hampshire Chronicle for three years. 

Toby studied at the University of Brighton and can be found on X through the handle @JournoToby