Gavray Meadows & SE Bicester

Gavray footpathFollowing the proposal to designate the Bicester 13 (Gavray Meadows) area east of Langford Brook as a Local Green Space, Cherwell District Council has published amended details for this area in the Local Plan “Further Proposed Modifications October 2014”, and the Gavray Meadows section can be viewed here.

On 16th December the reconvened Inspector’s Examination of the Cherwell Local Plan included discussion of the Gavray Drive proposals, and Pat Clissold, John Broad, Pam Roberts and Dominic Woodfield attended the meeting to present a local viewpoint on the plans to develop this site. While congratulating CDC for supporting the Local Green Space designation, concerns were expressed that this did not include the area between Gavray Drive and the public footpath, leaving a strip of ancient hedgerow land unprotected from future housing incursions.

The four representatives also spoke out against the plan to almost quadruple the size of Bicester 12 (farmland to the SE of Langford) from the original 400 homes to 1500, and the loss of the existing wildlife corridor in the Ray Conservation Target Area adjacent to the mainline railway. John and Pat protested against warehouses being built on Bicester 12, while John was also concerned about the proposed link road that would run past Bicester 12 from the A41 near Wendlebury to the Gavray Drive roundabout.

The provisional date for publication of the Inspector’s Report is March 2015.

A Gavray Meadows News page prepared by Pat Clissold showcases some of the wildlife on this site and can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/WildLifeNewsGavrayMeadows.