SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council and the Campaign to Protect Rural England are insistent that building any homes next to Grenoble Road is a dead issue being needlessly resurrected by Oxford City Council.

Of course they do — it’s an argument they will eventually lose if it continues to rumble on.

A balance has to be struck between development and our countryside, but there is something incongruous about an authority based in idyllic Crowmarsh Gifford being so implacably against development on the doorstep of Oxford city.

This city is crying out for housing and the lack of it is a major threat to it growing, or even offering people born and bred here the chance to continue living in their city.

South Oxfordshire’s opposition is purely philosophical.

Housing on the Grenoble Road site would hardly impact tangibly on the face of what it is a huge rural council area and not impose any drain on its infrastructure.

It would be the city in all but name.

There is definitely a balance to be struck over development and rural character, but Oxford City Council does have grounds to argue South Oxfordshire is not showing any flexibility to look at its real issues with an open mind.

It is getting to the point where the Government needs to step in and appoint an independent inspector who can look at the city’s need for housing and weigh it against the arguments, which have some credibility, to protect that area and make a binding and dispassionate decision.

Only then can both sides they stop squabbling and know the debate of Grenoble Road has been properly put to rest.