LOCATED at the gateway to the Cotswolds, Mickleton is a pretty village known for its welcoming and tight-knit community.
But all that might change as Mickleton deals with an ongoing barrage of applications for new houses – which residents fear will steal the tranquil village’s identity.
As previously reported in the Herald, Mickleton currently has 954 homes, but over the next few years due to changes in government policy it is expected to gain an additional 590 – increasing its size by 60 per cent.
Residents have formed an action group Mickleton Against Inappropriate Development (MAID) in a bid to fight overdevelopment.
Changes made by the Labour to the National Planning Policy Framework has resulted in a massively increased housing target for both Stratford and Cotswold district councils.
For Cotswold District Council, within whose catchment Mickleton lies, that means it must accommodate 1,036 new homes being built a year to meet a target of 18,600 over the next 18 years.
Speaking on behalf of MAID about the impact such developments would have on Mickleton, parish councillor Chris Cottam told the Herald: “The biggest change can probably be will become a small town rather than the village we love.
“The population would be bigger than Chipping Campden but with little of the associated infrastructure, which means even more people needing to travel on already congested roads. How does this support the government’s policies for ‘active travel’ and ‘the green agenda’?”
He continued: “The second fundamental change would be on the landscape, and character of Mickleton as a typical Cotswold village. The heartbeat of village life is community.
“Large-scale developments bolted on to the edge of a village don’t just spoil the views and create urban sprawl; they undermine that sense of community.”
There are currently three planning applications under consideration for a total of 325 houses in Mickleton – a fourth for 120 was recently withdrawn.
The newest application, from Gatesby Estates, sees a request to build 170 new dwellings (25/04010/OUT), including outside the village boundary. Thames Water have already said there is not adequate infrastructure presently to accommodate the new build.
Elsewhere there are applications from Northern Trust Land to build 60 homes (25/02213/OUT); and Newland Homes for 90 homes (25/03351/OUT).
MAID recently conducted a survey in the village which saw over 90 per cent of respondents believe that the number of proposed new dwellings is inappropriate.
Describing the mood in the village, Cllr Cottam said: “It’s anger and despair. People are angry about the government’s housing targets based on a formula that does not take local needs and real-world constraints into account.
“Mickleton needs a relatively small volume of affordable housing to support growing families, and some bungalow-type housing more suited to ageing residents. If the country needs 1.5 million houses then they need to be built where there is genuine need with an infrastructure to support. This is not Mickleton.”
He continued: “There’s despair, that lives are about to be made irrecoverably worse, and it feels like there is nothing you can do because no one is listening.”
MAID says it sympathises with the situation the planning authority, Cotswold District Council, finds itself in. This includes having to redo the local plan – where developments can best be placed – after the government changed rules on housing supply. It’s something that district council leader Mike Evemy (Lib Dem, Siddington & Cerney Rural) has tried to push back against
“We understand that CDC is in a difficult position,” commented Cllr Cottam. “The old local plan is now invalid and the new one will not be in force until the end of 2026 at the earliest. In the meantime, villages like Mickleton are vulnerable to opportunistic applications like the four we have seen in the last few months.
“The most recent pushback to central government from Mike Evemy and the team at CDC is very much appreciated.”
He added: “Government must change their approach to the nonsensical allocation of housing targets before it’s too late. Joining forces with other authorities in the same boat would help get the government’s attention, and proactively working with neighbouring authorities in the development of local plans must be done better if stupid decisions are to be avoided.”
