Our Main Objections

BaECON has very strong reservations about the planning process on this project, as well as its financial viability and the significant commercial risk being taken by Cherwell.

In essence there are the following issues:

1. The Eco-Town proposals have never been placed before the people of Bicester and we have had no say in them whatsoever.
2. Cherwell District Council appears to have driven this project through various loopholes in the planning regulations, without any substantial public involvement or enquiry
3. As yet there is no actual "Master Plan" for the scheme, so we have no idea what is actually being proposed.
4. Cherwell District Council has given planning permission for an "Exemplar" site, with no idea what, if ever, the rest of the estate will look like, how it will work, nor what transport, education, medical, dental, or employment provision there will be.
5. Almost every organisation that commented on the proposed plans had objections of some sort, many of them very serious ones.
6. At present there is no developer for the site.  The company behind the scheme - P3Eco - is simply facilitating the development, but does not have the funds to act as a developer. 
7. P3Eco said in 2009 that it had "substantial funds" to take the project forward, but now says it doesn't.
8. As there is no developer willing to put its own money into the project, Cherwell District Council is planning to use up to £9,000,000 of YOUR money to pay for things which the developer would normally be responsible for, such as the school, the community centre, an energy generation plant, and employment centre.  CDC is hoping (and that is all that it can do) that at some point in the future, perhaps many years from now, a developer will come forward and give them some of this money back.