There’s a housing shortage in the UK. Sure, simply building more homes could solve it, but developers in Oxfordshire have decided to go one step further. Just building houses would be too easy – so they’re constructing an entire new town.
Or at least that’s the plan. Set to be built on a former US army base near the designer outlet haven of Bicester, Heyford Park would be centred around 6,000 brand new homes which would house up to 18,000 people, making it one of the county’s larger villages. However, not everyone is in support of the development, with some saying it would put unnecessary strain on rural infrastructure.
Architecture company Proctor & Matthews has signed on to design much of the development, including some of the homes, leisure facilities, and renewable energy plants. The firm hopes to utilise a mix of old and new, repurposing old structures and roads as well as constructing brand new buildings where necessary in a way which will maintain ‘a woodland edge in keeping with the wider countryside features.’
The company’s director said that he views this as ‘an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the heritage of this unique location,’ adding that ‘the new Labour Government’s ambitions to deliver housing in significant numbers on brownfield land, under promotion of new towns, is a welcome boost to this unique opportunity’.
As well as places to live, it’s estimated that thousands of jobs could be created by the site, from jobs in everything from renewable energy to bricklaying. A representative from Dorchester Living, the company overseeing the entire Heyford Park project, said this made it ‘not just a housing development, [but] a forward looking development for Oxford’.
The local council say it is yet to receive planning permission, so this project is very much in its infancy. But this time next year things could look very different, and soon after that you could be moving into Oxfordshire’s coolest new neighbourhood.
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