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Search the Public Notice PortalControversial plans for 37 new homes on the edge of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds are expected to be approved after a long fight.
The site at the Rushy Bank ancient woodlands, south of Forest Road near Charlbury, has been subject to multiple planning applications, with each one provoking opposition from locals.
Most recently, West Oxfordshire District Council granted planning permission for 37 homes on the site last July.
The council had previously granted planning permission for the same number of homes in 2015, 2020 and 2023.
But on each of these occasions the plans were quashed by the High Court after campaign group Friends of the West Oxfordshire Cotswolds launched a legal challenge.
For the most recent one, West Oxfordshire District Council said it received a pre-action protocol letter from solicitors.
According to the council, the letter set out "a number of potential grounds" of legal challenge to the grant of permission.
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"It is not necessary to rehearse the detail of the grounds raised in this report," council planning officer Mike Cassidy said in a report.
He added the council took specialist legal advice and voluntarily agreed to consent to the quashing of the permission.
But now the High Court has formally quashed the permission by consent order, and the application therefore falls to be re-determined by the council on an entirely fresh basis, Mr Cassidy said.
The officer has recommended the plans be approved subject to legal agreements.
No objections have been given to the homes by various council departments, utility industry businesses or public services.
However, objections have been given by the Charlbury Conservation Area Advisory committee and the Cotswolds National Landscape board.
Both have taken issue with the potential impact that the new 37 homes could have on the natural area in which they would be built.
A further 144 objections have been sent in to West Oxfordshire council, criticising the design, layout, increased danger to flooding, potential threat to wildlife and more.
Nearly 20 people have written in to support it, praising the "much needed affordable homes", a potential to boost the numbers at the nearby schools and how the homes would "preserve" Charlbury's character.
Mr Cassidy has recommended the homes get planning approval when they go before councillors at a meeting on Monday, April 20.
He said: "It is officer opinion that the adverse impacts of granting planning permission would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits and as such, planning permission should be granted."
If approved, it would be subject to 26 legal agreements such as length of build time, car parking provided and a construction traffic management plan being agreed to.
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