Sheep Street Possible Development

The HELAA Plan is now available on the West Oxfordshire website. Consultation opens in November. We are a group of Burford residents who got together to oppose the Sheep Street Site, and we hope you will support us in stopping this ludicrous project by registering your comments and objections.

In October’s Bridge, our District Councillor Hugo Ashton wrote about the HELAA plan that he put together with Councillor Andy Graham. Unfortunately, Hugo did not mention that on page 71 of the report, Area N, currently Prime Agricultural Land, was recommended for the development of 70 dwellings. Area N covers the fields on Sheep Street from the Surgery to the cemetery lane, land where Battle Edge was fought in 752AD and which historical importance is key to the area. Thanks to West Oxfordshire’s focus on the view of A40 motorists, this entire area enjoyed by most residents is now going to be concreted over. You know the lovely walk through the fields which nicely allows people to loop from Tanners Lane back to Sheep Street and the High Street? Concrete! 

On top of this, it is questionable whether the council has completed proper due diligence. After reading the site proposal, we decided to check a few facts.

Surgery and schools.

As of a few months ago, the Burford surgery was no longer accepting new patients. Due to the Cotswold Gate development, the surgery saw a 14% increase in the number of patients. In addition, as part of that development is considered a care home, the surgery is compelled to accept everyone from the retirement community. Politicians enjoy telling us that each new development financially contributes under section 106 which goes towards increasing capacity for local schools and surgery. As of today, the surgery has not seen a penny. 14% increase in patients, 0% increase in funds. Likewise, both the primary and secondary schools are now oversubscribed. 

Flooding and water pollution.

Unlike Cotswold Gate which sits on a flat free-draining surface, Sheep Street is at the bottom of a steep hill with severe flooding after each heavy rainfall. Replacing fields with concrete requires very extensive (and expensive) structural measures to prevent the water running down and flooding the lands and properties north of the development site. For this reason, the Cole’s Field development was judged unsuitable as it would have resulted in the flooding of Witney Street and of three properties. It should be noted that BTC was firmly against this development. In December 2022 they wrote:

BTC is as unanimously and robustly against this proposal as we have been against all previous applications. We regard it as a cynical attempt to batter Burford into submission knowing that we are a small community with limited resources. We shall, as your Council, be lodging strong objections

So, what changed? Did they conduct a flooding assessment we haven’t seen? Have we now become a large community with abundant resources?

Traffic and air pollution.

Traffic in Burford is horrendous and getting worse with an increase in the number of coaches. The constant traffic in Burford has resulted in a significant increase in air pollution due to cars and coaches idling. Sheep Street and Tanners Lane should be considered single lane roads. The HELAA site plan proposes nothing less than adding roughly 150 cars on these two streets. In addition, the planners considered that this would be a perfect place to add a coach and car park. We assume that the planners expect all cars and coaches to access the site from the west side of Sheep Street. With most traffic coming from Oxford, this is nothing but wishful thinking. With no direct access to the A40, the development site and coach and car parks will exacerbate traffic jams on Sheep Street and Tanners Lane and increase air pollution.

Public transport. 

Whilst the planners emphasise the buses from Burford to Witney, they failed to flag that there is no coach service to the train station. They also fail to mention that Charlbury now has resident parking which results in no parking available at the train station after 8:15am. Therefore, unless you are planning on getting into Oxford before 8:30am, you can no longer take the train to go to Oxford.

Whilst the affordable housing will benefit teachers and people working in Burford, only 10% of the 70 dwellings are required to be affordable. Whilst politicians argue that this number is much higher, the House of Commons Library published a paper in July 2024 showing that this percentage has now fallen from 20% in 2020 to 16% in 2023. Therefore, in a development of 70 homes roughly 7 -11 families will be in affordable homes, and the rest (59 to 63 dwellings) will be expensive dwellings likely used as Airbnb properties or even left empty. Several Cotswold Gate properties are still vacant.

Please, when the consultation opens, make your views known. Without them, Burford faces an unmanageable spread which we cannot physically support.

C. Hoge on behalf of the Sheep Street, Tanners Lane and Priory Lane residents against Area N.

Contact: Burfordsheepst@gmail.com

This article will appear in the November edition of The Bridge. There is a link in the previous blog post on this website to help you find the plan.  We shall add a link to the consultation when this is available - Ed