Heyford Park Area Strategy
7.1 Heyford Park will continue to make a significant contribution to delivering homes and jobs in Cherwell during the lifetime of this Plan. By 2042:
- The 2022 approved masterplan will have been delivered.
- Heyford Park will be a distinct and sustainable community with its own facilities and employment opportunities, well related to Bicester and the wider rural area in Mid Cherwell.
- The area’s sensitive natural environment and the importance of its heritage legacy will have continued to be protected and enhanced.
- The area will be an attractive location for business and a focus for creative industries in Oxfordshire.
- Public transport will have improved.
- New and improved walking and cycling routes will be created within Heyford Park and to the wider countryside.
- The preservation of the historic environment and environmental improvement of the former airbase will have been secured.
- New services, community facilities, and cultural and recreation opportunities will have been delivered.
- Improved drainage solutions to avoid the risk of flooding to neighbouring villages.
- Environmental and recreational improvements to the wider area beyond Heyford Park will have been delivered, including to the Canal and River corridors with improved public access and an enhanced natural environment.
Heyford Park Policies
Policy HEY 1: Heyford Park Strategy
7.2 To achieve this vision, our strategy for Heyford Park is as follows:
Overall Spatial Strategy
- Ensure the implementation of the committed growth at Heyford Park to fully establish the new settlement already planned whilst preserving and enhancing the area’s heritage significance.
Heyford Park Area Strategy
- Successful implementation of the approved masterplan (2022)
- Delivery of further transport investment to mitigate impacts on the highway network and support sustainable modes of travel
- Improvements to the range of employment, local community facilities and infrastructure, and further enhancements to sustainable transport options and the connectivity of the area.
Housing and Employment
7.3 Our previous adopted Local Plan identified the Former RAF Upper Heyford for a mixed use land allocation of 520ha (Policy Villages 5). That policy is retained. It supports the development of a new settlement at Heyford Park comprising approximately 2,400 dwellings and approximately 120,000m2 of land for employment provision. A masterplan was approved in 2022 to guide the delivery of the 2015 Local Plan allocation and ensure the planned new settlement responds sensitively to the environmental and heritage context of the site. To date approximately 1,100 new dwellings have been completed and a further circa 1500 homes are committed.
7.4 In addition to the housing proposed, the masterplan approved 8.3ha of employment floorspace with up to 35,175m2 of new build employment in a Creative City area.
Delivery of Green and other Strategic Infrastructure in the Heyford Area
7.5 Existing community facilities at Heyford Park include a secondary school, nursery and a village centre. The approved 2022 masterplan has helped secure further leisure and education provision and food and non-food retail opportunities.
7.6 The existing local centre is expected to provide for the majority of the needs of the new community with higher order services located in the nearby settlements of Bicester and Oxford.
7.7 Our Green Infrastructure Strategy (2022) has identified areas near to Heyford Park for green infrastructure improvements linked to the river Cherwell corridor and Oxford Canal which provide an opportunity to serve the residents of Heyford Park as well as providing for ecological, ecosystem services and public access enhancement.
7.8 The study also describes a larger cluster of protected habitat further to the east at Upper Heyford - including the Ardley Trackways SSSI, the linear Ardley Cutting and Quarry SSSI, as well as multiple local wildlife sites at the former RAF Airfield and at Stoke Wood.
7.9 The following opportunities have been identified for the Heyford Area:
- Preventative upstream flood mitigation, including nature-based solutions, which would minimise impacts downstream
- The creation of a nature-rich “green lung” through the central part of Cherwell, enhancing access to the landscape along the green-blue spine of the River Cherwell and allowing for landscape-scale nature recovery
- The creation of a landscape-scale River Cherwell Waterway Park
- Restoration of the health of the River Cherwell and Oxford Canal -enhancing water quality through vegetation, floodplain restoration, and the removal of barriers
- New spaces for habitat and recreation - connecting Steeple Aston and Lower Heyford, providing a Gateway to Upper Heyford, and nature-exploration park at Somerton near Bestmoor SSSI
- Green corridor connections - connections provided to Ardley Trackways SSSI, between the Oxford Canal and Upper Heyford and Lower Heyford Station with enhanced canal access.
Heyford Park’s Historic Environment and Landscape
7.10 The former RAF Upper Heyford airbase in its entirety is designated as a conservation area, reflecting the role that the airbase played in the Cold War years. It contains a number of Scheduled Monuments identified as ‘Cold War Structures’ as well as five listed buildings.
7.11 The site has been divided into three main functional character areas: the main flying field and a technical site to the north of Camp Road, and the residential area that is primarily to the south of Camp Road. The flying field represents the core area of historic significance and is of national significance due to its cold war associations.
7.12 Heyford Park is surrounded by open countryside in an area containing historic rural villages, important landscapes, views and vistas. Rousham Conservation Area also lies partly within this area and includes the designated landscape to the north of Rousham House.
7.13 The 2007 RAF Upper Heyford Planning Brief the RAF Upper Heyford Conservation Area Appraisal (2006) are still a relevant document. today. They provide detailed heritage and landscape information and sets out key principles to maintain the central open character and functional appearance of the site’s former flying field and the preservation of buildings of international and national importance on site.
7.14 Any new proposals within the Heyford Area will therefore need to take account of important views and vistas, avoid coalescence with neighbouring settlements, seek to limit of the impact of development on the surrounding countryside and preserve and enhance the historic environment.
Strategic Transport Improvements within the Heyford Area
7.15 There are a number of strategic transport improvements currently identified in the Local Transport Plan area strategies, and Oxfordshire’s Infrastructure Strategy for the Heyford area. These include:
- A new spine road within the new proposed allocation to accommodate buses and to provide for active travel
- A commuter cycle route to Bicester linking to an improved bridleway to Bicester to the east of Heyford Park
- Capacity upgrades to M40 Junction 10 along with wider highway capacity improvements
- Upgrading of the access road to the B430 to the east of Heyford Park.
Policy HEY 1: Heyford Area Strategy
Our over-arching priority for this area is to secure the delivery of the adopted 2015 retained Policy Villages 5. This will be achieved by aligning the delivery of housing and employment with the infrastructure required to achieve sustainable development, whilst sustaining the site's heritage significance.
All non-strategic development in the Heyford Area should be in accordance with the Settlement Hierarchy set out in Policy SP 1.