At it's meeting on Tues 15th March,  the County Council Cabinet authorised it's officers to enter detailed discussions with Oxford United Football Club (OUFC). The next stage will examine the feasibility of their plans to build an 18,000-capacity stadium, community and sports grounds

along with commercial development needed to fund the stadium, for example hotel, retail and conference facilities.

 Oxford United FC want to build a huge football stadium and commercial complex on 44 acres at Stratfield Brake. The County Council who own the land has been asked to transfer it to OUFC under a 250 year lease.

Kidlington Development Watch (KDW) has put a lot of time and effort into protecting our Green Belt. So it’s not surprising that we object strongly to this plan. Stratfield Brake is not the right answer to OUFC’s problems.

Permitting commercial development on this sensitive Green Belt site is not consistent with national or Local planning policies. Policies that are in place to protect our environment and quality of life. The map below shows the staggering scale of housing and commercial development already in the pipeline on former Green Belt sites.

Cherwell District Council are now inviting feedback on draft development briefs for the sites between Kidlington and N Oxford. On the map below they are marked as PR7a (Water Eaton Lane/Sainsbury Roundabout, the Golf Course (PR6b) and the land west of Oxford Road below Cutteslowe park.

 At the time of writing, a proposal has just been made for a new 18,000 capacity football stadium for Oxford United together with leisure, retail, hotel and conference centre developments to be built on the Stratfield Brake Sports Ground. We argue that this appears to be an inappropriate development that is not in Kidlington’s long term interests.  The proposal has been launched with a  massive PR drive aimed at obscuring the very real planning concerns.

Cherwell district Council - Local Plan 2040 consultation

KDW's response to Cherwell Council's current consultation on its local plan is now available to download.

We support and expand on  Kidlington Parish Council's initial proposal for a linked network of 'Local Green Spaces" (LGS) surrounding the village. We  focus on the positive reasons for LGS designation rather than reasons why the surrounding Green Belt sites should not be built upon.

Cherwell district Council - Local Plan 2040 consultation

Cherwell District Council is currently consulting on the next version of its Local Plan. This has provoked another 'feeding frenzy' of interest from developers keen to be allowed to build in and around Cherwell’s villages. The map below shows the sites (in pink) they have put forward in Kidlington parish alone. Almost all of them are in the Green Belt, which has already been substantially reduced under the previous plan.
The image below says it all!
Download the full  Kidlington map proposals here or for other parish details visit this link.