Science superpower? Plans for major £340m science park denied
Plans to turn part of a golf course into a £340m science park have been refused by a local planning authority.
Greystoke Land wanted to turn the western half of Waterstock Golf Club near Wheatley into an industrial site with eight storey buildings replacing the tree-lined course.
The proposed development near the Oxfordshire M40, that would have been known as the Waterstock Science and Innovation Park, would have been built on more than 100 acres of green belt land.
Pegasus Group, which submitted the plans on Greystoke’s behalf said the project would have a “limited effect on the wider landscape” and that its buildings would have a “positive and coherent identity”.
The application was filed with the council in July this year.
There was fierce opposition to the plans, with hundreds of people joining a protest walk through the site and nearly 400 objection letters sent to South Oxfordshire District Council.
The council turned down the application on Monday, citing 17 grounds for refusal.
Greystoke had been previously warned by the council that planning permission was unlikely, as the project was deemed “contrary”.
The decision was described as an “early Christmas present” by Waterstock Parish Council chairman, Rob Arthur, who said the development was “unwanted.”
“This was a dreadful application with so many negative implications including yet more traffic on already overloaded local roads, damage to the habitats of local wildlife and loss of popular recreational area,” he said.
The application was turned down for ecological and traffic reasons, and because it would mean the loss of the existing public access to the site and the open countryside.
Greystoke Land are yet to comment on the refusal.