About 300 people turned up to have their say about future plans for housing at the old Grove airfield.

In the first of a series of site design workshops and drop-in exhibitions about the 2,500 homes planned for the former wartime RAF base west of the village, residents met planners and potential developers, as well as experts on highways and transport, urban design, landscaping and the environment, to voice their opinions and discuss the issues involved.

The current consultation programme was organised on behalf of the Vale of White Horse District Council and developer Persimmon Homes.

Key requirements in the current Vale Local Plan suggest that the Grove homes should be built in three main phases 500 houses by 2011; a further 1,000 homes within the following five years; and a further 1,000 houses by 2021, along with new community facilities and schools.

Jeff Bishop, of BDOR Ltd, the consultants involved in the exercise, said: "We were given a remarkable amount of positive material from people, and some really useful overall site designs from the workshops. I hope these first events have reassured local people that, firstly, at this stage there's no fixed plan for the development, and secondly, the Vale and the developers want to talk to residents, councils and interest groups first, before preparing draft proposals for the eventual planning operation."

Mr Bishop's views after the two-day consultation, were that the key issues that had emerged were the need to integrate the new development with Grove; to use the gap between Grove and Wantage for facilities to bring the two communities together; and to build a village centre, without affecting the existing services in Grove.

A detailed report on the workshops will be sent to the Grove Development Forum, set up by the Vale council, which meets later this month.

A summary version will go to all who attended the consultations, and another round of public workshops and an exhibition will be held in June.

Mr Bishop added: "It was clear that few of the people who came along welcome the development on the airfield.

"But I think they felt happier once they had realised that there's a genuine chance that it will be a good, well-planned development and they can help to shape it."