Plans to build 3,000 homes in a village have been adapted so a former airfield is no longer swallowed up as a public consultation is launched. 

Members of the public can now have their say on contentious plans at the site of Chalgrove Airfield, a former World War II aerodrome.

The proposals are open for feedback within South Oxfordshire (SODC) and Vale of the White Horse district councils' current Joint Local Plan consultation.

The councils are proposing to remove the allocated site from their development plan.

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The consultation will run for six weeks until 11.59pm on February 21.

The original plans submitted were heavily opposed by villagers in 2018, with one resident claiming building on the airfield would "destroy" the Chalgrove community.

Homes England owns Chalgrove Airfield but part leases it to defence export business, Martin Baker – a provider of ejector seats to UK armed forces and allied nations.

thisisoxfordshire: How Chalgrove Airfield could look

South Oxfordshire (SODC) and Vale of White Horse District Councils say the planned market town-sized development should not be built.

Their plans suggest the project is “unsuitable for development” and should be scrapped. 

"Our review of existing allocated sites has demonstrated that the allocated development is unlikely to be achievable and that this site is no longer suitable for development", a planning paper said.

Concerns about the overall development and the proximity to the airfield’s runway were previously raised by the Civil Aviation Authority and nearby householders.

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The two district councils said these concerns led Homes England to withdraw its planning application in May 2021 after it had been submitted to SODC in June 2020.

Both district councils have said the planned 3,000 homes would not fit on Homes England’s current site. 

Consultation papers added: "The current site boundary does not allow enough space for 3,000 new homes and a realigned runway delivered to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) standards.

"Homes England has advised that the site boundary would need to be extended, predominantly to the north into currently unallocated, greenfield land, to address the CAA’s concerns about the runway."

Both councils are now under Liberal Democrat control, with a new Local Plan being developed to replace the former Conservative plan, which was pushed through SODC in 2020.

In 2020, South Oxfordshire District Council was told by the Government to pass its current Local Plan for development until 2035, including the airfield project and thousands of other new homes, or face intervention. 

The councils added that the airfield project is “not a good fit” with any of their current or potential planning policies, which centre on an intention to build on “well-located brownfield sites” or on current sites that would serve unmet demand from Oxford. 

In March, Homes England said it was “still continuing to work on a revised scheme” but has since issued no further update online.

Freddie van Mierlo, Liberal Democrat county councillor for Chalgrove and Watlington, has welcomed the proposed removal of Chalgrove Airfield as a housing site.

Mr van Mierlo said: “The development of Chalgrove Airfield would be deeply damaging. 

"It would create a town the size of Thame or Henley in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, with no suitable transport infrastructure. Residents have long known that delivering housing on this site is not possible.

“In addition, it would threaten the operations of a hugely successful British exporter of defence equipment, vital to UK armed forces and allies around the world.

"This is not a derelict brownfield site. It is an active airfield, important to the local economy and to our forces.”