A key part of the Transport Strategy for Chalgrove Airfield is to deliver bypasses around Stadhampton, Chiselhampton and Cuxham, and this will be subject to a detailed planning application later in 2020.
These bypasses are necessary to support Homes England’s development proposals at Chalgrove Airfield and will help address existing highway issues, provide additional highway capacity and will improve the local environments through the existing
villages.
Throughout 2018 and 2019 Homes England engaged with local stakeholders, landowners and the local communities on the preferred bypass routes and undertook three stages of engagement and consultation with numerous stakeholders and included:
Stage 1 – Collaboratively Identifying and assessing options.
Stage 2 – Technical consultation of bypass options.
Stage 3 – Public consultation of preferred alignments (can be found here ).
Following the public consultation, Homes England commissioned a programme of surveys and other baseline assessments (April – October 2019) which were necessary to understand better the environmental conditions along the preferred
alignments.
More information on Homes England’s bypass proposals, public consultation, and the response to feedback, progress and next steps in the Update Report (June 2020) can be found here.
Investing in the Environment
Homes England understands that investing in the environment is important. Our plans include the delivery of new open spaces, landscaping, the creation of new habitats, sustainable drainage and improvements in biodiversity to improve the
overall ecological value of the Airfield. We will also provide more opportunities for communities to grow their own food and spend more time outside.
Our proposals include:
- A minimum of 30ha of accessible Open space, including new parks, walking and cycling routes.
- The creation of new habitats on site and a 10% increase in biodiversity overall.
We also recognise the need for any new development to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
As well as reducing the need to travel and improving access to sustainable transport choices, sustainability measures have been embedded into the design and flexibility is provided within our proposal that will allow for specific measures – such as low
carbon energy and energy efficiency measures – to be developed further as the proposals evolve to a more detailed design and reserved matters.
To address future flood risk, Homes England has developed a sustainable drainage strategy which incorporates separate systems for managing foul and surface water drainage, reducing the existing risk of flooding in Chalgrove Village which includes a
network of retention ponds, wetlands, swales and drainage solutions through the site.