The VoWH planning committee has approved the Redrow development for 70 homes north of Milton Road in Sutton Courtenay.  There appears to be no opportunity for appeal but we will explore every possibility.  This is a decision that shows how the voice of local democracy has been reduced to less than a whisper.  Over 200 objections were raised to the expansion of Sutton Courtenay around this location but this counted for nothing in the planning process.  We can now expect Sutton Courtenay to have over 27% more people in the village in just a few years time with more than an additional 500 cars on our roads.

The poor level of the debate at the planning committee was illustrated by the comments from one of the councillors that this development would make the shape of the village around Milton Road nice and symmetrical on google maps.  No consideration was given to the impact this would have on already severe problems of congestion on our local roadsor the fact that the green space around Sutton Courtenay is rapidly disappearing.

David Hignell from the Parish Council, Gervase Duffield from the District Council, Chris Doel Chair of KSCR and a local resident all spoke against the development.  Margaret Turner of Harwell and Fiona Roper of Wantage, both of whom live in areas that have had similar development pressures, voted against along with Gervase.  The rest of the committee were in favour, led by Jerry Patterson.

We have to note that Ed Vaizey, our local MP, has provided not one iota of useful support to our campaign to stop this unwanted and unwarranted development.  The majority of the time he does not even bother to reply to correspondence on the matter.  The Liberal Democrats on the Planning Committee have offered us no practical support either.  We do thank the local Parish Councillors, especially Bill Hanks, and Gervase Duffield for the arguments they have raised against this development.  County Councillor Richard Webber has also provided support.

Special thanks go out to all the people who have supported this campaign.  Over 30 supporters made the effort to attend the Planning Committee meeting and over the last few months dozens of volunteers have helped with leaflet drops, letter writing and contributed thousands of pounds of their own money to fund the fight against this dreadful development.  We shall continue this battle to stop Sutton Courtenay being damaged even further by the Pye development and the mega-warehouse plans.

KSCR