A scheme to demolish 54 flats in Carterton and replace them with 135 houses was given the go-ahead by West Oxfordshire District Council on Monday.
Outline application for the development south of Stanmore Crescent and north of Brize Norton Avenue was supported by Carterton Town Council and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) West Oxfordshire.
Tenants are still living in the properties on the site, and applicants Annington Property Ltd said they are aware they will have to move out of their flats.
The chair of the town council’s planning committee Roger Crappers said: “We welcome development as long as it’s good development.
“Those houses are military houses that have been there for 50 years or more.
“They’re past their sell by date. They don’t do anything for the appearance of the town.”
The 54 homes to be demolished are REEMA Prefabricated Reinforced Concrete, which is a type of housing designed after the Second World War usually for soldiers returning from the front lines.
Acting chair of the CPRE West Oxfordshire, Justine Garbutt, wrote to the council to say the group in favour of developing on REEMA land.
She said: “It is positive that matters are progressing on REEMA land. From the CPRE’s perspective, development that leads to betterment is positive and brownfield spaces are preferable to greenfield land.
“This application is for less houses than the allocation, so we are satisfied that it does not represent a stretching of Carterton’s target. It is therefore welcome in principle.”
However the CPRE did raise concerns about the development, saying the planned 10 per cent affordable housing is not a ‘significant contribution’.
Ms Garbutt added: “This does not deliver what we need.
“It’s important that opportunities to provide what our community in West Oxfordshire requires are not under-played. Otherwise, we will just be saving up problems for the future.”
One resident submitted comments to the council ahead of the meeting on Monday to raising concerns over biodiversity on the site.
Paul Hughes, of Sedge Way, said: “It is good to see multiple small ‘parks’ within the scheme, but disappointing to see no specific measures to help pollinators, such as wildflowers.
“It would also be good to see bird/bad boxes added to trees and for nesting sites for birds such as sparrows, starlings, swallows, swifts and house martins built into some of the properties themselves.”
