BICESTER is a Garden Town but where is the garden?

Our growing town has a centre, comprising the ancient market streets, civic buildings and the modern precinct of Pioneer Square.

Giant garden sheds which promise to employ thousands are being built at every point of the compass around the outskirts.

But what of the garden?

Within the ring-road, the town’s natural green spaces are fragmented, there being one nature reserve at Bure Park and two wildlife sites.

Bicester Fields comprise the natural flood plain of Langford Brook, but this ends abruptly at a new housing development where tons of stone have raised up the ground for the houses to be built on.

Gavray Drive Meadows Local Wildlife Site is of major importance to the town and to the county.

Studies show that being in a natural green space reduces blood pressure, calms the mind and lifts the spirits. This is so much needed in our modern world.

The Skimmingdish Lane Wildlife Site is another hidden gem.

It is part of the supposed linear park along Skimmingdish Lane which has been nibbled away by housing and a new large electricity sub-station.

The Government’s dash for economic development and housing has put Bicester’s wildlife sites under the threat of destruction; Gavray Meadows by 300 houses and Skimmingdish Lane by a 64 bed care home, the second along this road.

But many amenity green spaces are also threatened: the old St Edburg’s School playing field by housing and the Oxford Road sports ground by a shopping complex which would leave just Pingle Field as a buffer between the expanding Bicester Village and the precinct of the ancient church of St Edburgs.

Vitally important green breathing spaces in existing housing estates such a Derwent Green have been bought by speculators for infilling with houses, further threatening to diminish the ‘green infrastructure’ of Bicester Garden Town.

So existing wildlife sites within the town become more precious but also more threatened and isolated as the open countryside recedes behind a wall of houses and warehouses.

This is comprehensively reported in ‘The state of nature in Oxfordshire, 2017’ published by Wild Oxfordshire.

The Oxfordshire Growth Board meets at the end of the month with ‘Green Infrastructure’ on the agenda. Let’s hope that the severity of the situation will be taken on board by this group.