Architect to draw up plans for sustainable community, with research centre and public transport, in derelict quarry.
Architect Feilden Clegg Bradley is to prepare a masterplan for a 3000-home sustainable community and research centre to be located a disused quarry in Oxfordshire.

The practice has already prepared conceptual plans for the 70 ha quarry, which is as at Shipton-on-Cherwell, just north of Oxford.

The scheme's brief sets out a minimum of 2400 homes, a university research and development centre and 500 units of student accommodation. Local firm Bride Parks is the developer, and other firms on board include planning consultant RPS, utility consultant Charterhouse Building Services and rail consultant Intermodality.

The project, which has yet to be costed, aims to provide affordable housing for key workers and to offer public transport options.

It also envisages the transformation of a canal and water basin into resources for Countryside recreational pursuits.

It’s an exemplar of what we mean by sustainable communities

Richard Feilden

Richard Feilden, a senior partner in Feilden Clegg Bradley, said the project was in its infancy but that it fitted in with the practice's emphasis on environment-conscious design.

He said: "The site is incredibly well connected. There are some complicated planning issues, but it's a genuine exemplar of what we mean by sustainable communities."

The scheme will be in public consultation for six weeks from 26 September. There will then be a planning inquiry before the council and public next spring, by which time the architect will have drawn up detailed plans.

Edward Dawson-Damer, the project manager for Bride Parks, said Shipton-on-Cherwell was particularly appropriate because of its proximity to road and rail routes.

He said: "The site is in a corridor between the road and the main Oxford–Banbury rail line, and there is potential to build a station."

Under current plans, Oxford council aims to have 35,000 extra homes in Oxfordshire by 2011. Bride Parks is now lobbying the council to give its scheme a role in those plans.