A SECOND bid to get nearly 160 homes built in Abingdon has been labelled “a scandalous waste of public money”.

Consultation on the Drayton Road planning application closes today with last night 59 comments lodged against and just one in favour.

The latest 159-home proposal from Taylor Wimpey comes after plans for the site first surfaced in 2012.

But opponents say the latest bid is out-of-character and will generate too much traffic.

Virginia Way resident Peter Dodd, 69, said: “Nothing has changed really. The traffic is still a danger.

“Everybody is against it.”

Campaigners thought they had fought off the development in March when Oxfordshire County Council refused permission for two new pedestrian crossings needed to ease traffic.

The developer had previously overturned the decision of Vale of White Horse District Council planners to refuse on the grounds it would cause unacceptable traffic.

Taylor Wimpey then bought the site and put forward its planning application in May.

Roberta Nichols, of the Friends of Abingdon Civic Society, said she could see no substantial change between the two applications.

She said: “We believe that this is a cynical ploy by the new applicants to overturn the original decision which was made after going through a full planning application and appeals procedure.

“As such, to have to repeat this process is a scandalous waste of public money.”

Mike Badcock, a district council member for Abingdon Ock Meadow, said three-storey buildings would be out-of-character. He said: “It is urban terrorism. It is just destroying the concept of the field. They are totally unsympathetic towards the town.”

And Abingdon Town Council member Iain Littlejohn added: “This is not an appropriate development for that location.”

Taylor Wimpey spokesman Bernie Goodjohn said: “The highway proposals formed part of the detailed consideration of the application by the Planning Inspectorate when the original application was approved.”

The aplication is set to be decided later in the year.

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