Plans for the restoration of a beloved wildlife site to its former beauty took a step forward at a recent open event.

More than sixty people from Bicester and surrounding villages visited Langford Village Hall, Bicester, on Saturday June 11 to find out about a Community Interest Company (CIC) which is being formed to take on the ownership and management of Gavray Meadows.

The walls of the village hall were adorned with posters of plants and animals living in the meadows, as well as one which explained the aims of the CIC.

The wildlife in Gavray Meadows has been monitored and photographed by local resident Pat Clissold for many years, to gather evidence of the ecological value of the site.

Read more: Residents come together to protect local wildlife site

Representatives of the development company L&Q and their planners also attended to show their support for the CIC and to answer questions about their plans to build houses on the remainder of the site, which is identified for housing in the current Cherwell Local Plan.

Four Cherwell Councillors from the Bicester area also attended.

During the event, ecologist Dominic Woodfield, who first recognised the wildlife value of the site, led guided walks round the meadows.

Mr Woodfield said: “After so many years of fighting against development proposals, it’s fantastic to walk around this site knowing that local people will soon be both its owners and custodians, securing a future for the fantastic wildlife that can be found here.”

 

Read more from this author

This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1

A message from our Editor

Thank you for reading this story and supporting the Oxford Mail.

If you like what we do please consider getting a subscription for the Oxford Mail and in return we’ll give you unrestricted access with less adverts across our website from the latest news, investigations, features, and sport.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok for more. 

You can also join the conversation in our Facebook groups: stay ahead of traffic alerts here, keep up to date with the latest from court here, share your favourite memories of Oxford here, get your daily dose of celebrity news here and take some time out with news that will make you smile. 

If you’ve got a story for our reporters, send us your news here. You can also list an event for free here.