A major scheme for 150 new retirement flats has been planned for an Oxfordshire village. 

The application has been lodged by Newcore Capital Management LLP to be built next to Yarnton Home and Garden centre in Sandy Lane. 

The plans include 90 car parking spaces, landscaping, public open space and pedestrian/cycle links. 

This comes after a huge development of 300 homes was approved in Yarnton despite fears over flooding. 

So far no comments have been submitted to Cherwell District Council in support or objection. 

The application's planning papers explained some of the thinking behind the scheme.

It said: “The proposal is a very carefully considered scheme that introduces a retirement living area to the north of the existing Yarnton Home & Garden centre. 

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CGI of 150-retirement flats in Yarnton (Image: Cherwell District Council) “The entire site will be stitched together with a new landscaping scheme, providing amenity spaces and meaningful environmental enhancement. 

“The layout revolves around central courtyards that serve as a green oasis for residents. Communal allotments with raised planting beds allow residents to engage in gardening activities.

"Benches and gathering spots in the courtyard create opportunities for outdoor socialising alongside outdoor play spaces.

“Apartments are accessed through wide, street-like communal corridors, creating a sense of community and creating connections to the outdoors. Ground floor spaces are dedicated to communal facilities. 

“A shared, dedicated parking area ensures that cars are kept to only one area of the site, meaning that pedestrian routes are prioritised.

“It is submitted that the proposed retirement living development of 150 units (age-restricted but within use class C3) would form part of the overall strategy for the delivery of Oxford’s Unmet Housing Need.

"Furthermore, that the retention of the garden centre as an existing and valuable community hub, with its retail and leisure activities too, all sit in a fully policy compliant position and in line with the relevant terms of the development brief too.

"That is the general and overall policy position that establishes the principle of this development and underpins these planning proposals.”

It added: “The provision of a mixed development of age restricted residential accommodation, along with the retention of the existing garden centre, all combine to provide a centrally based hub, which delivers the community focal point to the wider site development, precisely as the site-specific policy envisages. 

“It is a wholly sustainable form of development overall and one which goes positively to meeting the planning policy requirements for this site and the needs of the District as a whole.

“It is therefore very much hoped that this application can be duly granted outline permission, as submitted.”

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About the author  

Toby is a senior reporter who has a particular interest in covering planning and local government. 

He joined in September 2024 having been a reporter at the Hampshire Chronicle for three years. 

Toby studied at the University of Brighton and can be found on X through the handle @JournoToby