Racing boss fights homes scheme

Business bosses have joined forces to fight plans to build hundreds of homes on a former Oxfordshire airfield.

The proposals by the Vale of White Horse District Council would see 750 homes built on the Grove site by 2011.

The Williams Formula One team is one of the companies leading the call for plans to develop part of the site near Wantage to be reconsidered.

They fear those plans, which would require a link road, would cause traffic problems and affect trade.

'Urban villages'

The motor-racing team has been joined in its opposition by Crown Technology and Grove 2000 plc.

Together the three companies employ more than 1,500 people locally.

They are suggesting an alternative scheme using brownfield sites, which they say reduces the need for extensive road-building on farmland and would keep traffic out of Grove and Wantage.

Frank Williams, of WilliamsF1, said: "I recently received personal undertakings from the local authority that there would be no further residential development in close proximity of the WilliamsF1 factory.

"On the basis of these undertakings, we have invested many tens of millions in new infrastructure in the last year, primarily in aerodynamics facilities.

"I think it would be unreasonable if new housing built near the factory compromised us from using these facilities or continuing to expand in order to be competitive and generate local employment."

The development is being considered as part of the council's local plan.