Council brands Weston Otmoor eco-town 'appalling'

A local authority has branded an eco-town in its region a “sham” and “appalling” and refused to do any more work on it.

Oxfordshire County Council has stopped work on the Weston Otmoor eco-town, claiming developer Parkridge owes it £100,000.

It says Parkridge had promised to pay for detailed work on the transport implications of plans to build 15,000 homes near Weston-on-the-Green.

Weston Otmoor is heavily opposed by the surrounding community, which has formed an action group called Weston Front to fight the proposal.

Calling for Parkridge to pay its bill, the council was also heavily critical of plans submitted by the developer.

“These developers have been shifting the goalposts on an almost weekly basis,” said councillor Keith Mitchell.

“As one set of pie-in-the-sky fairytale plans is shown to be a superficial sham, another appears – and proves to be equally appalling.

“Parkridge seems to have more newly-updated sets of plans to throw around then most people have had hot dinners.

“The chaotic approach creates spiralling work and costs in terms of time as well as money for ourselves and Cherwell District Council.”

Parkridge director Roger Sporle said it had only received one invoice for £7,860.06 and had not paid it because the council had refused to provide information on how it calculated the sums.

“This is sound corporate governance as no public or private organisation should pay bills when it does not know how it has been made up,” said Sporle.

“It is disappointing that the county have chosen to raise this through the media rather than the proper channels of communication that have been established.”