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Community engagement events in April 2024 to consult on revised proposal for Chalgrove Airfield

Join Homes England to view our revised plans for a 21st Century Market Town at Chalgrove Airfield, building new homes, creating new jobs, and providing new infrastructure.

A series of community engagement events will take place this April to allow current and future residents to view and provide feedback on the revised proposals for this existing allocated site at Chalgrove Airfield, learn more about our vision for a sustainable new community on previously developed land, and speak to representatives from the team. 

Located in South Oxfordshire, Chalgrove Airfield is an existing allocated site that is not in the Oxford Green Belt. The proposals will support the district to meet its identified housing need with the provision of new homes, 40% of which will be affordable, as well as providing new infrastructure and boosting the local economy. 

For individuals that cannot make the in person or online events, all the engagement information and a Frequently Asked Questions document will be available here from Thursday 18 April 2024 to 5pm on Friday 17 May 2024 when the consultation period will end.

Homes England is continuing to work on a revised scheme for Chalgrove Airfield to bring forward a new sustainable community that will provide much-needed housing and supporting infrastructure for the local area. 

We are continuing to update survey work across the site and identify solutions that will enable us to address the complex technical issues and local concerns raised in response to the previous Outline Planning Application. This will ensure that alongside the building of new homes, we deliver on our commitment to safeguard Martin Baker’s operations on site, achieve a step change in active and sustainable transport use, address the challenges of climate change and to maximise the benefits from the scheme.     

We remain committed to working with local communities and stakeholders to shape the proposals and will continue our engagement with South Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire County Council, and other interested parties to ensure our revised plans support their priorities.  

It is Homes England’s intention to consult on our revised plans by the end of 2023, as part of our long-term commitment to ensuring that Chalgrove provides for both existing and future residents and delivers against the original vision for a sustainable 21st Century Market Town. We will publish details of the consultation events later this year.

Homes England continues to work on a revised scheme for the positive development of Chalgrove Airfield to provide much-needed housing and supporting infrastructure for the local area.

We are continuing our engagement with both South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire County Council to better understand and reflect their ambitions in regards to the site, in line with their priorities for climate change as set out in the Local Plan. 

This forms part of our long-term commitment to ensuring Chalgrove provides for both existing and future residents, and delivers against the original vision for a sustainable 21st Century Market Town.

We will provide a further update on the plans shortly.

Homes England is working with stakeholders on the vision for Chalgrove Airfield to address any concerns that have been raised.  

We are positively engaged with the Civil Aviation Authority, Environment Agency and Oxfordshire County Council, and we are working towards agreeing a revised strategy for the scheme in 2022.  

As part of the revised strategy, we will bring forward a comprehensive and detailed package of works – including the delivery of new roads and junction improvements at Stadhampton / Chiselhampton and Cuxham – that will meet the requirements of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan and create early benefits for the local community and key stakeholders.  

Homes England remains committed to the development at Chalgrove Airfield, which will address the immediate housing needs and bring significant investment to the wider area. We will provide further updates in early 2022, including the proposed phasing of the development. 

The outline planning application for the development of Chalgrove Airfield is being withdrawn to allow an amended application to be submitted to take account of comments from the Civil Aviation Authority’s Airfield Advisory Team.

This reflects Homes England’s commitment to safeguarding Martin Baker’s operations at Chalgrove. The site is allocated in the South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2035, and the importance of creating a new diverse, connected and active community at Chalgrove to urgently meet the considerable housing shortfall and deliver significant investment for the area remains unchanged.

Welcome to this newsletter about our proposals for new homes and community facilities at Chalgrove Airfield.

It’s been a while since our last newsletter as we’ve been working hard behind the scenes on our proposals. We know that there’s a lot of interest in this project, and we wanted to get back in touch now that we have more information. This newsletter will give you an update on what we have been doing, what’s due to happen next, and a timeframe for achieving this.

Becoming Homes England

We’ve relaunched as Homes England. As part of this, our remit has been widened. We now bring together land, money, expertise, and planning and compulsory purchase powers, with a clear remit to facilitate delivery of sufficient new homes, where they are most needed, to deliver a sustained improvement in affordability.

Delivering the right infrastructure to support these new homes is a key part of our role. As a Government body, we have access to funds to allow us to deliver infrastructure in the early stages of development.

What have we been working on?

Over the past year, we’ve been busy gathering additional information about the area, talking to stakeholders and working up plans ready for public consultation. This has included discussions with South Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire County Council, health and education providers, parish councils and a range of stakeholders to ensure we’re supporting development at Chalgrove Airfield in the right way.

We’ve also carried out further detailed environmental and transport assessments, which help us build up a picture of background conditions in the area. The proposals we present for the site will be informed by this work.

Supporting growth

We know how important it is for new housing to be supported by the right infrastructure and amenities. We’ve committed more than £200 million to delivering infrastructure in support of the scheme. We want to ensure that any impact on local roads as a result of a development at Chalgrove Airfield is more than catered for by major investment and improvements to the surrounding highways network.

This includes highways schemes at Stadhampton, Chiselhampton, Cuxham, Watlington and Benson, as well as provision of improved public transport. It also includes a new secondary school, two primary schools and a medical centre at the site.

Adapting to the needs of existing airfield stakeholders

You may be aware that Homes England has been negotiating with the tenant of the Chalgrove Airfield, Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd over the last year. We are the freehold owner of the airfield, so we’ve been talking to the business about the best way

to allow development of the site while allowing the business to continue.

We have proposed taking control of the whole site, and providing 130 acres to Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited, including a brand new runway as part of
this arrangement. This would allow for the business

to remain open throughout the development period, safeguard all current jobs and operations, and allow for the company’s future growth at the site.

We’ve yet to come to a voluntary arrangement with Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd. As a last resort, we may seek to use to use compulsory purchase powers to enable development at the site.

What’s happening next?

We would like to work with local people to discuss our emerging proposals and to develop the right scheme for the site and area as a whole. Our next step will be to hold a public consultation on our emerging proposals.

As part of this, we are inviting local people to two consultation events:

Friday 13 July 2018 – 1600-2000 at Chalgrove Village Hall, Baronshurst Dr, Chalgrove, Oxford OX44 7TE

Saturday 14 July 2018 – 1000-1400 at Chalgrove Community Hall, High Street, Chalgrove, OX44 7ST

At the events, you’ll be able to find out more about our proposals, meet with the project team and ask questions, and share your views. We’ll also make information about the consultation available on the project website.

Following the consultation, we’ll consider all the comments we receive and work up detailed proposals. These will be included in a planning application in autumn 2018.