There are plans to demolish an Oxfordshire nursery, which has sat vacant since 2025, to build “affordable” rental homes for locals.
Stonesfield Pre School and Daycare moved into a refurbished classroom of the village primary school last year, leaving its late-20th century building and playground empty.
The site is reportedly unused except for “informal parking” and could be demolished for redevelopment under recent proposals.
It is impacted by a “large number” of trees, and the village is a conservation area.
The location is owned by the Stonesfield Community Trust, a registered charity and one of the first community land trusts in the UK, founded in 1983, which owns several properties in the village.
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Plans say the trust rents its homes at “affordable rates to people who were born in, or live in the village or people who have immediate family members living in the village”.
It owns 15 properties and wants to expand this with a three-home terrace holding a one-bed, two-bed and three-bed on the nursery site.
The proposal states that the charity has “a large waitlist, especially for larger properties (3 bedroom+) for use by families”, adding that this “helped inform the proposal”.
The plans state: “The proposal is for a sustainable solution which balances competing needs to achieve a proposal that will allow for affordable housing to be provided which is in keeping with the aesthetic, massing and atmosphere of the locale whilst meeting the technical housing space standards and other policy requirements.”