Graven Hill: Concerns over self-build development's revised masterplan

Building began at Graven Hill in 2016 and is expected to continue until 2032

Residents of the UK's biggest self-build development have raised concerns about revised plans for its future.

Graven Hill Village Development Company Ltd (GHVDC) has released details of the masterplan as part of a consultation.

But concerns were raised about a lack of self-build plots, an increase in housing density and apartments, and fewer play areas and green spaces.

However, managing director Adrian Unitt said some criticisms were "either untrue or misleading".

Building started at Graven Hill near Bicester, Oxfordshire, in 2016.

Cherwell District Council bought the former Ministry of Defence site in 2014, with an original plan to build 1,900 homes.

GHVDC held a public drop in consultation event on 1 March, to outline the plan for 200 extra homes.

A one-off consultation event was held for Graven Hill residents

Paul Troop, the first self-builder at Graven Hill, said there seemed to be pressure from the council "to deliver significantly more units" as part of the revised plans.

He said they were "eating up much of the previous green areas".

Mr Troop said GHVDC was also creating a "two-tier development", where the few private self and custom-build plots were "out of the budget of all but the most affluent", with the "bulk of the development... affordable and volume housing".

"The different types of housing are not integrated, creating an unfortunate contrast between different streets," he explained.

'Few public services'

Clare Lowe, vice chair of Graven Hill Residents' Association, said: "They wanted to make it a lovely green space to live, and that's one of the reasons why a lot of people wanted to live here.

"Now that green space is being encroached upon, and there's a bigger focus on volume build.

"The promise of the original masterplan to have a really diverse range of properties here has tailed off."

She added: "We're caught between a rock and a hard place because we're going to have more people and more demand, less capacity for them, and very few public services here."

Managing director Adrian Unitt said some criticisms were "either untrue or misleading"

One resident, who attended the consultation at Graven Hill Primary School, said the presentation was lacking a side-by-side comparison with the previous plan.

The woman, who did not want to be named, added: "It's focused on the changes they'd like us to know about, but there are also lots of other changes that might go unnoticed.

"It just seems that everything is growing, but not proportionately."

'Larger open space'

But Mr Unitt insisted the number of play areas had actually increased, and that the previous masterplan showed a "variety of locations that the play areas could go and we may do the same at this next stage, as the final location of the play space isn't fixed".

He said: "Graven Hill benefits from a much larger area of open space and natural areas than most developments, with approximately 54% of the site designed as green space, including parks, amenity areas, allotments and woodland."

He also said the site was never envisaged as entirely self-build, but as a way to "deliver 30% affordable homes and trailblaze a new way of customising homes".

This includes "affordable choices from terraced houses, apartments, pocket plots, to coach houses", Mr Unitt added.

A new planning application will be submitted to the council, which has been approached for comment, in the summer.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2240.