RESIDENTS have vowed to fight plans to demolish a historic pub to make way for six homes resulting in the loss of parking spaces.

The Sprat pub in East Street, Didcot, is set be cleared for the new houses, but it is feared the development will cause parking chaos.

Debbie Biddiscombe, 44, a health and safety administrator who has lived in East Street for 20 years and is a mum of four children aged 14 to 27, said the number of parked cars was already “dangerous”.

She said the pub currently allowed non-resident drivers to pay to use its car park, which on average had four to five cars a day. And she feared these cars would end up in East Street once the new homes were built.

Our top stories

“One of my kids nearly got knocked over because you cannot see anything,” she said.

There is no right of appeal for objectors, South Oxfordshire District Council said.

Mrs Biddiscombe described the district council as “appalling”, adding: “They’re basically saying somebody has to die before they do anything about this.”

Didcot Town Council member and East Street resident David Rouane said drivers parked right up to the two junctions of East Street – at Hagbourne Road and High Street – which made it “dangerous for people to pull out” and for pedestrians.

“I’m disappointed with the way the district council has dealt with this,” he said.

Wantage construction company BPJ has won approval for six single-storey homes with off-street parking spaces.

The district council said: “The scheme includes new access on to East Street for two parking spaces at one of the houses. With this new access route it means that people will no longer be able to park on the road.

“All the new houses will have their own off-street parking and so will not add to the on-street parking problems in the vicinity.

“Although we understand concerns over the loss of on-street parking, this would not have justified refusal of this scheme.”

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.