The outline planning application for a large urban extension to the North of Abingdon was approved last week (26 July).
A development of 950 homes, plus a care home for 80 residents was approved on land that was originally in the Green Belt (it was recommended for removal in the Vale’s Local Plan Part One).
Representatives of the North Abingdon Local Planning Group (NALPG) – a member of the NNGO coalition, were present at the planning meeting where they raised concerns about the increase in traffic, air pollution and the fact that the number of homes permitted on the site in the Vale Local Plan was originally for 800.
The proposal was approved unanimously.
The meeting could have gone quite differently had the Government not stepped in at the eleventh hour and committed funding for the two new south-facing slip roads at Abingdon’s Lodge Hill junction on the A34 (half the cost of the new road junction).
The scheme will receive about £9.45m over four years from the government.
The total cost of the project is £18m, with the rest of the funds coming from developers and The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
NALPG and local residents are concerned that large numbers of houses could be built before the necessary highway infrastructure is in place.
This announcement means that vital infrastructure will hopefully be built at the early phase of development to cope with the associated additional traffic and to ease congestion in the town.
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