Homes planned on the Fiveways allotments?

Mon 3 Oct 2016, 09:54 (last edited on Tue 4 Oct 2016, 12:18)

Dear Forum,
I would just like to say that I am in favour of more houses being built in Charlbury but not being built by a developer whose target up to now seems to have been the £500,000+ market. Small towns and villages need to maintain a local housing stock for younger people and families in order to keep the town viable. Sooner or later greenfield sites around Charlbury will be utilised for new housing so why not aspire to take control of this as a community and investigate the possibility of building something different. What I would suggest is creating a new genuinely eco/green housing development that is truly affordable. It is possible to build 2 bedroomed wooden houses for around £50-60,000; if you allowed another 40% for infrastructure costs per unit; houses could be created for less than £100,000 each. A sustainable site could be created using solar panels/alternative energy systems, composting toilets and low-impact methods utilised on site including communal parking etc; there are endless possibilities for a community willing to take the lead. There would be plenty of options that could be discussed in order to retain these houses for the benefit of the whole community i.e. leasehold, needs based, means testing; you don't need to own your own house if you have security of tenure in perpetuity and the cost is reasonable.

The proposed development of this site by Vanderbilt will probably be using standard construction - most likely concrete blocks and Bradstone both of which use vast amounts of cement. I am led believe concrete production is responsible for 20% of the worlds carbon emissions. With modern construction methods and up to date building techniques there is no reason why wooden houses should not last 100+ years. Wood is basically carbon neutral; in the lifetime of a wooden house the trees used to construct can be regrown twofold. It is a no-brainer for the future of families and children!

The present and last governments housing plans are not for the people! Building standard construction houses creates jobs unnecessarily but does keep the unemployment figure down, governments in power and the price of housing obscenely high!

Land costs are only as high as they are in somewhere like Oxfordshire because estates such as Cornbury and Blenheim along with development companies/big businesses, mortgage companies, pension funds etc lead us down a path that most of us are stupid enough to follow. Having said that it is very difficult not to comply! There is plenty of land around Charlbury suitable for a new "green" development. Normal agricultural land is currently around £8,000 per acre; it only becomes a million pounds plus per acre when land owners and developers think they can build standard construction houses on it; this does not have to be the case.

Don't get me wrong Charlbury! I love your quaint historic houses; they are beautiful and should be preserved, lived in, enjoyed and remain the centre of your community but it is not the way forward to carry on building in the same way. District councils are meant to encourage green building but unfortunately only lip service is paid to this. For some bizarre reason the average eco home seems to cost between £3 and 400,000 therefore putting them out of the reach of most families embarking on the home ownership journey.
So come on Charlbury grasp the nettle; be the first in the country to build a truly green and sustainable housing project that will become life enhancing for all involved. West Oxfordshire council and local politicians will surely support you.