Gladman, who have traditionally specialised in speculative development on greenfield sites, have quietly launched a consultation about a development of 60 homes – contrary to the Bloxham Neighbourhood Plan – on the south side of the Tadmarton Road.

Gladman ask for your views via an online consultation form  but they structure it in a manner where you are asked to comment upon topics they have chosen – thereby eliciting answers that are likely to prove most helpful to their case. They do have a box where you can write without restaint. (They are likely to be published along with your name!)

We note that their questionnaire makes great play on the statutory provision of what are, perhaps misleadingly, called affordable homes.

You might think this is housing that young people could afford to buy.  Most of it isn’t. Most of it is rented housing owned by Housing Associations and let through the council’s Allocation Scheme to applicants who meet the criteria to join Cherwell’s Housing Register.  There is undoubtedly a need for such housing but it’s important to realise that it’s mostly not about being able to afford a house you will one day own.
There may also be some shared ownership homes where the purchaser owns a fraction of the house paying a mortgage for that fraction and rent for the fraction that they don’t own. This can help some onto the housing ladder especially in times of rapidly rising house prices. Again it should not be confused with some remarkable gift of cheap housing for the children of local people.

You can find the questionnaire here http://www.your-views.co.uk/tadmartonroad/
You may also want to express your views, without being constrained by the Gladman form’s straitjacket, by communicating them to via Parish Council.