RESIDENTS who fear a development will ‘trash’ a conservation area are pushing to have the approved application re-examined.

Plans to build homes on a beauty spot north of Gas Lane and Ascott Road in Shipton-under-Wychwood were approved by West Oxfordshire district councillors last month.

Despite the relatively small size of the development – just two homes and associated access – residents said it will destroy the character of an area that was protected for decades.

Alan Vickers lives in Church Street, behind what is now the development site.

He points out that all applications over the past 40 years, aside from a a single house by the same developer approved in 2016, were rejected for the site’s visual amenity.

He said: “This new application has not considered the visual amenity aspect from the west at all and will in fact completely destroy it.”

For mum-of-two, Mr Vickers’ neighbour Alison Thomas, the beauty spot next to their home was one of the key reasons for moving to the area.

She said: “It’s always been a conservation area and that was part of the reason for us moving here.

“My children would play there and a lot of the people that are protesting against the development used to play on the site as children.

“If that field goes then the next one will go and the next one will go and soon there will be no green spaces left.”

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) also objected to the plans.

Andrew Garbutt from the group said: “The previous application for one house was passed on condition that the area where the additional house is now proposed, remain as a natural environment.

“It is difficult to see how circumstances could have changed in the interim and it’s important that the ring-fenced natural environment is protected and preserved.”

Mr Vickers has contacted West Oxfordshire District Council and requested the scrutiny committee to look at the decision to approve the development.

A council spokesman said: “The application was determined by the committee following a site visit. In making their decision they were aware of all points raised both for and against the application.”