RESIDENTS in Binsey have welcomed news that an inquiry is to be held into Christ Church's plans to create new homes in the historic Thames-side hamlet.
The informal hearing will focus on the risk of flooding and also examine the idea of creating a mile-long causeway to provide residents with an escape route to Oxford when waters rise.
Christ Church decided to appeal to the planning inspectorate after being refused planning permission to turn the hamlet's disused Manor Farm into housing. The risk of flooding was judged to be too great. The inspectorate says an informal hearing into the Oxford college's appeal will be heard at Oxford Town Hall, on November 23.
Villagers who have bitterly opposed the plan say they hope they will have the opportunity to voice wider concerns about the scheme. The Binsey Residents' Association has already submitted a 100-page document to the planning inspectorate outlining its case against the development.
Alison Cobb, who has lived in the tiny west Oxford village for 21 years, said: "The public hearing is what we had hoped for. We now hope that we will be allowed to have our say. The application was refused because of flooding, but there are many other environmental reasons why it should be rejected. Who knows, Binsey may even be flooded when the inquiry is going on."
Christ Church wants to build two three-bedroom houses and one four-bedroom house and convert two listed barns into one- and two-bedroom houses. Christ Church earlier said that it had employed flood specialists Peter Brett Associates to examine practical answers to meet flood requirements.
The idea of a metre-high causeway running beside Binsey Lane was dismissed as "madness" by the residents' association.