Baynards Green warehouses refused
16/01/2026
Previously discussed applications were all reconsidered and all thrown out
Plans to cover around 150 hectares of farmland with warehouses have been refused.
Councillors at a marathon seven hour planning meeting rejected the case put forward by officers to approve the development at Baynards Green, close to junction 10 of the M40.
Three outline planning applications by Albion Land and Tritax Symmetry Ardley Ltd were considered. Two of them had previously been granted permission, but all three were brought back to the committee in light of new information.
Planning officers warned elected members that a refusal could result in the application being taken to appeal, resulting in huge costs to the council were the case lost.
But a number of councillors argued the case that the stated regional benefits, including new jobs, did not outweigh the considerable harm to the landscape and the effect on people living nearby.
Councillor David Rogers was told if the applications were approved little could be done to direct developer financial contributions to the local communities affected, something which he found unacceptable.
Councillor Rogers said: “To be a resident in a community where you have chosen to spend your life, in the countryside, and now you are going to have a warehouse – which undoubtedly will be 24-7 operation with floodlights all the way through the day and the night – and we can do nothing to help these people? I think that’s just a terrible indictment of the planning system and the position that we find ourselves in.”
Councillor Rob Parkinson dug into the officer’s reports, questioning how they had reached their decision. A discussion ensued on the use of a number of policies as reasons for refusing the application. Councillor Parkinson was advised some of these were no longer relevant, but he pointed out they were in the officer’s own report.
In all three cases Councillor Parkinson put forward the motion to refuse planning permission.
He said: “I think this proposal is horrific in landscape terms. It would be a blot on the landscape that we would never recover from.
“In conscience, I can’t vote for this and I would appeal to all of you to support this recommendation for refusal. It’s just the scale, the location, the character, the impact on our landscape. Its horrible.”
A number of councillors abstained from the vote, with the remainder narrowly voting for refusal in all three cases.
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
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