Grove Wick Farm: Williams plan 200 homes near Wantage

Land at Grove Wick Farm would be used for 220 dwellings, alongside "public open space, tennis courts, infrastructure and biodiversity enhancements."

Developers Williams Grand Prix Engineering have not specified how many bedrooms each of the houses will have, but do say 143 will be 'market' houses; 54 'social' and 23 'intermediate'.

The 10 hectare proposal is the latest in a series of plans increases the number of houses in the area, which is set to see a rapid expansion in population in the coming years.

Residents have long expressed concerns about an increase in housing and a lack of public services and infrastructure to cope with the rising population.

Julie Mabberley, Campaigns Manager of the Wantage and Grove Campaign Group, explained: "This outline application is part of the Monks Farm allocation between Grove and the railway and is for the patch to the west of Williams F1.

"Local Plan Part 1 specified that the whole Monks Farm area should have around 885 homes and (around six Hectres) of employment land, subject to master planning.

"There is no increase in employment in any of the applications so far but plans for nearly 1,000 new homes and there isn't much land left so we're not sure where the employment land will be. Once again we seem to be getting homes but not jobs."

Williams moved to Grove in the 1990s and currently has around 1,000 staff on its nearby site. It also says it has invested more than £100 million in the area.

Mrs Mabberley continued: "The outline planning application for up to 400 dwellings just to the south and west of Grove Wick Farm and an extension to the Grove CE primary school was recommended for approval in July 2018 but the agreement has not yet been signed.

"At the planning meeting last July when it was discussed, Network Rail objected to the development because of the proximity to the level crossings and asked for the developers to pay for additional safety measures but these were ignored by the planning committee. We would expect them to do the same with this new application."

The target decision date for this application is in September.

An unnamed South and Vale Planning Officer said: "We are currently in dispute over indexation on certain contributions for phase 1 of this development."

Williams have been contacted.

To view the application, visit the Vale of White Horse District Council planning page, at https://bit.ly/2HR6Oy4, and search P19/V1420/O