Plan for 40-home Oxfordshire village development resubmitted

A reserved matters application for the land at Butts Piece, off the Main Road in Stanton Harcourt, has been put forward to West Oxfordshire District Council again, after the initial one was approved in 2021.

On the application’s page (26/01234/NMA) it is explained that they have amended the application to re-plant several trees that have not survived, relocate smaller areas of wildflower planting to form a wildflower meadow and natural coppicing of the tree buffer.

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A reserved matters application is a request submitted after outline planning permission is secured and provides the details of the development.

The outline planning application was initially submitted in 2016 and approved in 2020 while the initial reserved matters application that followed proved somewhat controversial.

Chief among the criticisms was from Stanton Harcourt Parish Council’s clerk Trudi Gasser, who raised queries with regards to sewage treatment.

The land at Butts Piece, highlighted in red (Image: Google Maps)

The comment in 2021 read: “Our local sewage treatment plant at Stanton Harcourt has a licence to discharge raw sewage into the watercourse if the volume exceeds specified levels.

“It seems incongruous to add additional housing whilst Thames Water is unable to process current volumes of sewage without the need to dump untreated sewage in the rivers.”

Over the past six months the Stanton Harcourt plant has discharged sewage into Harcourt Brook for a combined 1640 hours.

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At the time, in 2021, Thames Water had no objections to the planning application.

The new estate is set to include 16 ‘affordable dwellings’ and 24 ‘open market dwellings’.

These are comprised of properties ranging from one to five bedrooms.

Deanfield Homes, who have submitted the application, have been contacted for comment.