Former Oil Storage Depot, Bletchingdon Road, Islip

The site falls within the Oxford Green Belt and therefore contravenes existing planning policy. There would need to be exceptional circumstances for the release of this site from the Green Belt.The site does not relate well to the rest of the village, and the local road network and congestion through the village may be a constraint. However it is located in close proximity to the school and doctor's surgery. The Landscape Character Sensitivity and Capacity Assessment (2017) indicated that the combined landscape sensitivity of the site is considered to be low and visual sensitivity to the medium. It considered that the site has medium capacity for residential or employment uses, as development on the whole site may be out of scale with the village of Islip and encroach on to the valley of the River Cherwell. Landscape impact would therefore need to be carefully assessed due to lack of natural screening and local topography and not all of the site is considered suitable for development. Any development would need extensive screening to the north and east in particular. It is also noted that the site may have contamination issues due to its former use as a oil depot, which may reduce the overall viability of a scheme on this site.