'Crooked House' owner's fishing lakes plan near Banbury set to be refused

The proposal, submitted by the then-owner of the famous Crooked House pub - which was burned down and then demolished last summer – is viewed with growing suspicion. A parish council has alerted councillors to images concealed in a Power Point presentation showing a much bigger development.

The fishing village would provide accommodation lodges directly alongside the controversial motocross site – at one time earmarked as a future international sporting centre. The applicant, ATE Farms of Lutterworth, has already received consent from Oxfordshire County Council for 18 bungalows on the other side of the Stratford Road. The two sites are connected by a tunnel.

The fishing site is on farmland alongside outside Wroxton behind the Indian Queen restaurant. It asks for consent for two fishing lakes, two nursery lakes, 15 accommodation lodges, eight pods, parking and a management building.

Cherwell District Councillors on the planning committee are visiting the fishing lakes site today (Tuesday) ahead of Thursday’s planning meeting at which the proposal has been recommended for refusal.

Shenington with Alkerton Parish Council has alerted councillors to a power point presentation by the applicant which shows images of a much larger development including a large building that they believe might be a grander plan for a hotel on the site, plus 48 lodges and 20 huts.

Shenington says the applicants are a married couple pursuing a business but ‘it is difficult to see how the original proposal would make the business profitable’.

"This is important should the plan get consent because the business needs to survive. The original numbers are small. The secondary numbers make more sense in terms of profitability. “This business needs fishermen and women to make the business a success. However, there is no information in the application about the likelihood of this venue being of any value to the fishing community.”

A concerned Hornton villager told the Banbury Guardian: "The Planning Officer, who has recommended refusal, has picked up on a host of correct technical reasons why this proposal should not - and cannot - go ahead, not least because there is no need for this facility in this spot and it would urbanise a protected area of countryside.

"In addition, it's vital that councillors recognise the non-technical facts. The local landowner involved in this proposed 'fishing village' scheme is the same person who owns the notorious Wroxton Motocross track at the other end of this same piece of land.

"This is the track that tried to get retrospective planning permission and was flatly refused, by 13 votes to nil, last summer. The same track now has an Enforcement Order against it which the council is upholding, in the face of recent attempts to keep racing there.

"The same track site has protected species living on it, which it could be a criminal offence to harm through further major engineering work to the circuit.

"Allowing the fishing village to go ahead and, as part of it, a proposed new main road access would, one suspects, be a precursor to the motocross track trying to revive its commercial enterprise too, in the face of all legal orders and officer and councillor decisions so far."