Developer admits Banbury 'fishing village' would be used by motocross visitors

Councillors at last week’s planning meeting expressed alarm when the applicant – the former owner of the infamous Crooked House pub – admitted that the 15 lodges and eight pods, plus 18 bungalows on an adjacent site would all be used for the Banbury Motocross Track, which lies directly next to the fishing village site.

The 40 acre area lies behind the Indian Queen restaurant on the A422 at Wroxton heath. ATE Farms of Lutterworth had applied for two fishing lakes, two nursery lakes, 15 accommodation lodges, eight pods, parking and a management building.

Oxfordshire County Council has separately given the applicant consent for 18 bungalows on former quarry land on the other side of the Stratford Road. The two sites are connected by a tunnel.

Details and images of the application are available in last week’s Banbury Guardian report.

At last Thursday’s meeting councillors quizzed planning officer Katherine Daniels about the source of water for fishing lakes, since there are no brooks or rivers nearby and the land is 25 feet lower than the surrounding area because of past stone quarrying.

Concerns were also expressed about how sewage from the village would be managed and watercourses protected from pollution.

Speaking on behalf of neighbouring villages, Hornton Parish Council chairman John Offord asked: “Where is the water coming from for those lakes? There isn't an available source of water on this site, which sits 25 feet below the main Stratford road. So why would someone put in for planning permission for fishing lakes when they cannot fill them?

"Maybe because this proposal is a sprat to catch a mackarel. The applicants are asking for 15 dwellings and eight pods now, but we know what they really want. They made a revealing error when they submitted this application. The plan they put in not only showed the location of the 15 dwellings and eight pods, but dozens of other buildings that they really want on this site.

"If they get the permission for the first few, the applicants may make a great play that Oxfordshire County Council gave permission for a similar development by the same developer on an adjacent site - a disused quarry on the other side of the Stratford Road. Were you to grant this permission, you would compound the county council's error, because the developer would be able to link these two sites to make an even larger leisure and holiday complex.

"Last year, the landowner tried to get this committee to grant retrospective planning permission for the Wroxton motocross site next door to this proposed site. It was transformed from a little local grass track into one of the leading motocross circuits in Europe without a shred of planning permission.

"You threw that proposal out because it was the wrong development in the wrong place. That same landowner has now teamed up with the developer to come up with this so-called fishing village. Cherwell's planners are absolutely correct to recommend you reject it.”

The plan was rejected on the grounds that it would have an unacceptable urbanising effect on the rural landscape and there was no specific need identified for the facility.