Happy New Year and welcome to the new decade. Let's hope that it provides some of the infrastructure that we need in this area.

We'll start with a status report on current developments.

The developments at Stockham Park farm are finally nearing completion and we hope that the roads and green spaces are finished as promised. Humphries Green on Chain Hill still doesn't have the beautiful park promised in the planning applications but the houses have all been occupied for a number of years now.
King Alfred's East site (Springfield Road) has started and we expect people to move in soon.
Crab Hill building continues and over 50 homes are now sold, four stages of development are underway and the primary school should be ready for occupation this September. The Wantage Eastern Relief Road has started with earthworks near the Mably Roundabout but to keep the government funding we would expect construction at both ends to start this year.
The developments on Monks Farm in North Grove continue with most of the developments along Station Road being occupied but the sites behind them still do not have signed agreements and the completion of the North Grove relief road looks a long way off.
Building on Grove Airfield continues and about 50 homes are now sold on a combination of Persimmon and David Wilson sites. There is no news of the schools on this site yet except a comment in the County Council Pupil plan which states that
"Vale Academy Trust has been granted provisional approval to open this as an all-through primary and secondary school, providing 2 forms of entry in primary provision and 4 forms of entry in secondary provision (11-16 age range). The current ambition is to open this for September 2023."
Building continues on sites in both East Hendred and East Hanney and the first application is in for the new sites approved in Local Plan part 2 north of East Hanney.

Now, Lidl. The District Council Planning Committee last night decided to refuse the planning application for a new Lidl store to be built on land just north east of the Mably Roundabout. Grove Parish Council spoke in favour of the development but asked for a left turn only to be required on the exit of the carpark where it would have joined the A338. Cycling Uk Wantage objected to the application because of the impact on cyclists trying to cross the exit to the car park. Councillor Jenny Hannaby also spoke against the application, saying that large food stores in our area should be planned carefully and not be part of speculative development where they could impact the viability of existing stores. She was also concerned about the impact of an additional retail store on the A338 which is already over capacity at certain times of day and reminded the Committee that this would remove the separation between Wantage and Grove. The committee discussed the application at some length and finally supported the Officers recommendation to refuse the application with a split decision 6 in favour, 2 against and 1 absention.

Also, the County Council are reviewing their Oxfordshire County Council will set a new budget on 11 February 2020 and are consulting on their budget proposals until 29 January. For details see the Budget Proposals.

For details on any major development please go to our Current Developments Page.

For updates on road closures see https://one.network/ (previously Roadworks.org).

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes
Julie Mabberley

Campaign Manager
Wantage and Grove Campaign Group
www.wantageandgrove.org