AFTER a slow start, a steady stream of local people went to Thame Town Hall yesterday to examine the plans for the proposed housing development on what is known in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan as Site C.
The visitors, including local councillors and the Mayor of Thame, Peter Lambert, were able to study the proposals in detail and to ask questions of the team from Wimpey and Commercial Estates, and to express their own views about the proposals.
The Site C proposal is for 187 homes in total on land East of Thame in Thame Park Road, bordering Thame Park itself and Wenman Road, the B4012. The proposals include new allotments and space for a new burial ground for when St Mary’s Church yard becomes full, which it is due to do in the not-too-distant future.
The plans for the development of Site C, show proposals for two access points from Wenman Road, a pedestrian access point from Thame Park Road, and several new footpaths and cycle ways, including pedestrian access across open farm land behind the site, to Cuttle Brook.
Wimpey own the half of the site nearest Thame Park Road, and their spokesman said that they were likely to be submitting Planning Permission very soon, and hope to start building in the Autumn. The other half of the site, which will be included in the Planning application, is currently owned by Commercial Estates. Their spokesman said that once planning permission is granted and they have established points of design etc, they will sell their half to a developer, and it will probably be built over a longer time scale.
Although the murmering in room was generally in favour of the plans, the main concerns seemed to be around potential rat-running through smaller roads like Croft Road and East Street, to get to the town from Wenman Road, increased traffic in Chinnor Road and Park Street, and the most talked-about, the fact that only 15 -20% of the new homes will be two- bedroomed and therefore affordable to first time buyers and smaller family units and single people – a particular need in the town, many of them felt.
A local estate agent at the exhibition reported that a two bed property in Lea Park that he sold in October, went for £189,000, whereas a similar property last week sold for over £220,000, illustrating he said, an acute shortage of such smaller properties on the market in the town.
A Wimpey spokesman explained that the minimum percentage of smaller properties for developments in the district was a South Oxfordshire Dictrict Council planning policy.
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