The Vale of White Horse District Council has announced it is intending to build Council housing in place of Old Abbey House in the centre of Abingdon.

Using financial contributions from the nearby Old Gaol, where there was no social housing, the council plans to redevelop the former council offices at Old Abbey House.

The proposal for Council Housing on the site will help provide homes for local residents on the Council’s own waiting list.

This is subject to getting formal approval from the council, and planning permission.

The release of the airfield and Dalton Barracks by the Ministry of Defence has provided a ‘Brown Field’ site to help meet the needs for new homes in the Vale of White Horse District, and Oxford City nearby. Oxford has not met the new housing quota set by central government.

1,200 houses could be built at Dalton barracks. That would increase the size of Shippon 3 or 4 times. Shippon is the closest village to Abingdon. It is separated from Abingdon by the width of the A34, and has army housing and the barracks, with the older village nearby,

including the Prince of Wales pub and St Mary Magdalene church.

The part 2 of the Vale plan also includes 600 houses near Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, and smaller housing developments in Marcham and East Hanney. The plan will be ratified in 2018.

The postponed VWHDC (Vale of White Horse District Council) planning meeting to decide on outline planning permission for an estate of 800 houses north of Abingdon took place at the Amey Theatre in Abingdon School.

The meeting had been postponed because the Environment Agency had an objection, which has now been overcome with some modifications to the plan by CEG, the developer, who we learned had been working on this scheme for several years, and even worked closely with the VWHDC to get the VWHDC local plan adopted – which allows these 800 houses.

A government announcement earlier today removed the issue that could have held up the plan . It was dependent on the south facing slipways to the A34 at Lodge Hill being built to ease traffic in Abingdon. That slipway scheme will now receive about £9.45m over four years from central government. And central government has further funds to help open the way to new developments, allowing Oxfordshire County Council to feel confident they can ‘forward fund’ the rest – even before developer funding becomes available.

Oxfordshire County Council are now saying the slips could be open by the end of 2020.

After the news of the A34 Lodgehill Diamond Interchange the rest of the detail was largely nodded through by the committee in a unanimous vote to allow the 900 houses.

People speaking against had asked that no houses be built until the new slipway to the A34 is built. 400 houses will be allowed. It was noted by objectors that the number of houses has now gone up from 800 to 900. Somehow that was explained by the council officer as being only ‘up to 900’. There will be less 2 bedroom houses, and more 3,4 and 5 houses. That was explained by the council officer as market forces.

On the positive side there was a commitment by CEG that 35% of the total will be affordable housing. There will also be a central area with primary school, community hub, and shop(s). CEG were praised even by some objectors for listening to the community, and said they would continue to listen.

At the Culham Fete last Saturday, the Save Culham Green Belt group had a stall.

South Oxfordshire District Council are looking where to put some more houses in their local plan, and are considering the new option of putting 3,500 on the Green Belt near Culham. It might even finance a bridge over the River Thames.

The red areas on their map shows areas of new housing. If the scheme did make it into the local plan then the development would dwarf those in North Abingdon. They told me that 3500 houses would mean 8,000 to 10,000 people and 2000+ cars. The Culham population was 453 in the 2011 Census.

The green circle bottom left is a small part of the new reservoir being proposed again. Thames Water did a presentation on the reservoir proposal at Trinity Church two weeks ago. Not a lot of people knew that or they would have gone. I was told there were as many people doing the presentation as in the audience.