A major designer outlet centre is holding another round of public consultations for plans to develop a public green space and a large car park on a beloved sports ground.

Value Retail, who own Bicester Village, will be holding its second round of public consultations on Thursday, October 6 from 4pm to 8pm and Saturday, October 8 from 10am to 1pm at the John Paul II Centre in Bicester.  

The consultations will allow members of the public to share their views on Value Retail’s plans to develop the new park and the additional car park.

Both of which will be developed on Oxford Road Sports Ground, land that Value Retail purchased in 2018.  

Read more: Public invited to comment on plans for new park

The park, named ‘St Edburg’s Park’, will take up around 2.7 hectares of the proposed development site, to the north of the village, with the rest of the space being used for the 1000-space car park and bicycle hub – which will be built adjacent to Pingle Drive.

Community Relations Director at Bicester Village Miranda Markham said: “Our aim with the consultations is to reach everybody.

“We really would urge people to come and see the plans, it will be the biggest park in Bicester, and everyone needs to have their opinion heard.

“The second round is important because we’ve listened to the comments from the first round and now, we can share the changes we have made in response.

Speaking on the different components of the development, Mrs Markham added: “The planned car park is very important for the village’s commercial future, being that we are a key tourist destination in the town, county and nation.

“But the real focus of our proposal is the public park. The green space element is very important to the people of Bicester.”

However, a number of people from the town are opposed to the new plans, arguing that the park is simply a thin veil for a huge car park.

Callum Vinall, 28, said: “Bicester Village have simply attached a public park to their main plan to build a massive car park thinking that would suffice.

“The land has been used for sport for over 100 years, it’s a significant piece of land for the people of Bicester.

“It’s been used for fayres, carnivals, charity events, sporting events, and lots of other community events.

“Public consultations are just box ticking exercises, it would be a disgrace to have a multi-storey car park on this land.

Mr Vinall and others also shared concerns the proposal could generate an increased volume of traffic near Middleton Stoney Road roundabout, and therefore more congestion.

However, the Bicester Village public consultations website states it will be upgrading the capacity of the existing roundabout to prevent local congestion along Oxford Road.  

 

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

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