A parish council near Oxford has vowed to mount a robust defence against a developer’s plans to build “eyesore” £500,000 homes on village outskirts.
Beechcroft Developments Ltd has submitted proposals for 40 homes aimed at residents aged 55 and over on land off Braze Lane, next to the Orchard in Benson.
South Oxfordshire District Council turned down the application in September 2025, prompting the company to challenge the decision through the planning inspectorate.
The matter will now be examined at a public inquiry scheduled for February 17 at Benson Parish Hall, where local officials intend to resist the scheme.
Philip Murray, who chairs Benson Parish Council’s planning committee, said the village’s neighbourhood plan was designed to “protect” residents from precisely this type of scheme.
“There’s a huge amount of frustration from parishioners that Beechcroft can come and ‘dump’ this on them,” he said.
Mr Murray emphasised that the community already has sufficient accommodation for elderly residents and did not request additional provision.
“We’ve already got quite a lot of provision for older people, and we don’t need this, we didn’t ask for this, and we haven’t even finished building all the housing that we agreed to take on before,” he added.
Neighbours are fighting back against a plan to build ‘eyesore’ homes in their village
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The village’s neighbourhood plan, adopted in 2018, permitted housing development beyond required levels provided construction remained within the northern portion of the settlement.
It also stipulated that a visible green buffer separating Benson from the surrounding countryside be preserved.
The proposed retirement complex would breach both stipulations, and local residents submitted close to 150 objections during consultation.
“We really carefully considered how we could keep the community as a rural Oxfordshire village, that was right at the top of our priorities,” Mr Murray told the Oxford Mail.
‘We didn’t ask for this, and we haven’t even finished building all the housing that we agreed to take on before,’ the Parish Council chair said
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BEECHCROFT / BHPH ARCHITECTS LLP
“When you build large developments, there’s a tendency for them to become satellites and be self-sufficient, and then you lose the sense of being one community.
“This extremely opportunistic development will sit right on the edge of our parish and creates a great eyesore in the space which we had protected as a buffer.”
The parish council has engaged both a planning consultant and a barrister to represent Benson’s interests at the forthcoming inquiry.
Two previous appeals from the same developer were rejected by inspectors.
Mr Murray criticised the company for already marketing the properties, describing it as “a cheek” that Beechcroft is advertising discount market sale flats while the scheme remains subject to planning approval.
South Oxfordshire District Council rejected the application on grounds including accessibility concerns, landscape harm, drainage and flooding issues, biodiversity impact, and infrastructure deficiencies.
In its appeal, Beechcroft stated: “We believe that the revised proposals address the concerns raised during the application process.
“The proposed development has been sensitively designed with due consideration to the local vernacular to produce a development that sits harmoniously within the wider context of Benson.”