TWO hundred and seventy new homes in Littlemore will lead to increased pressure on schools and healthcare provision, the parish council has claimed.

The plans for homes on the Armstrong Road site next to Littlemore Hospital have also raised fears an old graveyard containing 545 bodies would be built on.

Littlemore Parish Council is to lodge an objection to the plans due to concerns over the impact they would have on infrastructure and local services.

Parish council vice-chairman David Henwood said: “We have concerns over amenities, parking, transport and schools.

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“We just do not know how to respond about education.

“There is a waiting list for primary schools and what they are going to come up with will put even more pressure on them.

“We do not even know where additional schools would go.

“There are no doctors’ surgeries or dentists and no shops nearby either. I think they need to put a set of amended plans forward which I think need to have more services.

“We know there is a need for housing but it needs to be the right application for the Littlemore conservation area.”

Fifteen per cent of the homes on the site would be one-bed, 30 per cent will be two-bed, 40 per cent three-bed and 15 per cent four-bed.

Up to 50 per cent would be affordable housing.

The parish council said there were also concerns over the exact location of the burial ground, with fears it could be built on.

An archaeological investigation, part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust’s application for the homes, said the burial site would remain undeveloped.

But the parish council believes a path to link the development to the rest of Littlemore would encroach on the graveyard.

Mr Henwood said: “We have looked at the original documents of the burial plots from the 19th century and we do not think that the developers know where the burial plots really are. We have the facts and we are happy to work with the developer.”

Trust head of strategic asset management Sheila Aldred said OUHT expected that points raised by the parish council would be considered when the plans came before city councillors.


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