Councillors have approved a 46,000 sq ft office development on land opposite Didcot Parkway station.
South Oxfordshire District Council’s (SODC) planning committee approved the plans put forward by the same authority for the three and four-storey building which will be the administrative offices of both SODC and Vale of White Horse District Council, at its July 2 meeting.
The 0.52-hectare site, once a hotel but used as a public car park for the last 17 years, will include commercial office space, a café and a 23-space car park. It is part of the mixed-use Didcot Gateway Masterplan.
But the proposal was not without opposition. Forty-eight letters of objection were received and Sarah Phillips, headteacher of nearby Lydalls Nursery School, spoke against it at the meeting.
She said the nursery didn’t oppose development but complained that a sub-station and bin store within the scheme were too close to classrooms.
And nearby resident John Salmons said: “This scheme would benefit nobody, not even the applicant themselves.
“Local government reorganisation means the applicant is no longer in any position to deliver the scheme – they’ve already made statements acknowledging such.
“If you got permission you won’t kick start regeneration, you will only delay it with years more uncertainty.”
He called the scheme ‘indefensible’ since the site is allocated for housing while the council cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply.
Councillors voted by four to one to follow officers’ recommendation to approve the scheme.
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