A PARISH council is pushing against plans to build at least 3,500 homes on rural land, which it insisted would "destroy" life as villagers know it.

Chalgrove Parish Council is continuing its fight against South Oxfordshire District Council, which is considering Chalgrove Airfield and Harrington as potential strategic development sites to tackle Oxford's housing shortage.

Council clerk Jo Murphy said: "The proposed development would destroy the rural character of life in our villages that we love and cherish.

"To make either of these locations work would require a huge investment in infrastructure on valuable farmland and rural countryside with an impact far greater than would development of the locations on the edge of Oxford."

At a meeting earlier this month she said communities from neighbouring villages and towns accepted "new affordable homes were needed" but stressed the importance of "keeping rural Oxfordshire rural".

She added: "These sites, being open countryside, are highly unsuitable for intense development that would increase the flood risk to Chalgrove, Great Haseley and surrounding villages.

"The existing road network of country lanes linking all our villages are currently at capacity and will not be able to cope with extra traffic."

She favoured development sites closer to Oxford, particularly land south of Grenoble Road.

Consultation on all seven options for development, to be included as part of the district council's 2032 local plan, is due to end on August 19.