Why Bicester’s new town homes was snubbed by Government

The developer, Dorchester Living, has built 1,200 of the planned 13,000 homes on the former RAF site near Bicester over 15 years, which is a £5 bn project.

While the Government has snubbed the plans they could still go ahead if they are approved by Cherwell District Council, despite now not receiving any money from the Government to contribute towards an affordable housing fund and new investment agency.

The Strategic Environmental Assessment by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government has identified various significant issues with the proposals.

The plans were scored on key objectives and considering the impacts over the short term, zero to less than five years, medium term, five to 15 years, and long term, more than 25 years.

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It then scored each element as either compatible, neutral, uncertain or incompatible with New Town objectives.

Mainly, it found the developer’s environmental impact assessment, which sets out how the development is going to affect the proposed site and neighbouring areas, seriously flawed.

The report said the location is assessed as having a significant negative effect on the biodiversity objective in the short, medium and long term.

According to the Environment Agency’s classifications, the location is under “serious” water stress and there is potential significant negative effect on the water resources in the medium and long term.

Air quality was assessed as having a “significant negative effect in the short and medium term” and a “minor positive effect in the long-term.”

The Taskforce Report outlined a significant challenge with transit connectivity and the risk of car dependency but said the location would take advantage of the proposed new railway station at the Chiltern Valley line, walking and cycling provisions.

Historic environment objectives, including the five scheduled monuments, 37 listed buildings and four conservation areas, were measured as having a significant negative effect in the short, medium and long term.

There is said to be a minor negative effect on the climate change objective in the short to long term, with mention about ongoing construction activities and the permanent loss of carbon sequestration in soils where permanent land take occurs.

The Government praised the already “large-scale highly productive” site but said the site is “relatively small compared to other sites in the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor”, it suffers from “low housing affordability”, “the impacts on the wider landscape and land use would require mitigation” and “there are likely positive effects of the brownfield site.”