CAMPAIGNERS have accused a council of misleading people by claiming an eco-town in Bicester is a done deal.

Cherwell District Council says it will only consult residents over the details of the 5,000-home eco-town on farmland at North West Bicester, not the principle.

But campaigner Tony Ives, who has set up action group Bicester and Villages Against Sham Eco-town (Base), claims the council’s policy is wrong.

The former town planner says the decision whether local eco-towns go ahead is down to the local planning authority – Cherwell itself. In July, North West Bicester was chosen as a potential eco-town site, ahead of nearby Weston Otmoor.

And he backs up his claim with a letter from the Department of Communities and Local Government, which states: “The ann- ouncement is a statement of potential. The decision on whether or not specific schemes go ahead is for the local planning authority.”

Mr Ives said: “The game they are going to play is to say ‘everything is settled, you are going to get it’, but it hasn’t been approved.”

Earlier this year, the High Court ruled councils only had to “test” an eco-town.

Mr Ives said: “My understanding of that is something more akin to a local inquiry over whether it is appropriate to go ahead.

“So until they have done that I don’t think they should give themselves planning permission.

“I do really think something is wrong where a council gives permission for itself to release land — that can’t be right.”

Landowner Catharine Murfitt said: “They have basically said ‘we are having your land or house and doing what we want’.

“We have been told we can’t take our land off the map.”

In July, the Government announced a shortlist of four sites for an eco-town scheme — Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire, St Austell in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk, and North West Bicester.

A Government spokes- man said all four locations would have to go through local planning processes.

Cherwell plans to add the eco-town site to the Local Development Framework — the map of where future housing in Bicester should go — without any further consultation.

Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s executive member for housing and planning, said: “Planning policy statements establish the principle that eco-town development is acceptable in this location.

“The decision on whether a specific scheme goes ahead will be subject to the normal planning application process.”

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