University of Oxford
January 2016 – April 2018
Bicester is a designated Garden Town with an ambitious plan for sustainable development (Eco Bicester – One Shared Vision). The town is due to double in size over the next 15–20 years, with the building of 13,000 new homes. This will increase the pressure on existing green infrastructure (GI) but also presents opportunities to incorporate large areas of new GI within the developments. The NW Bicester development, which will be the UK’s first Eco-Town, has a target of 40% of land allocated to green space. There are also plans to make this both zero carbon in terms of energy usage, and water neutral, and to use SUDS for water management. The overall ambition is a high quality GI network that could showcase Bicester as a key example of sustainable development in practice and make it an attractive place to live and invest.
Research Council: NERC