We are the Stoke Lyne Action Team, a group of local residents, neighbours, families, walkers and commuters, formed to oppose three enormous logistics warehouse schemes proposed for the open countryside at Baynards Green, beside Junction 10 of the M40.

What has happened so far

In January 2026, Cherwell District Council's Planning Committee refused all four Baynards Green warehouse schemes for sound planning reasons. This spring, the developers, Tritax Symmetry and Albion Land, appealed that decision.

In May 2026, the Council decided that it would not defend the decision its own elected members had made at the appeal. That decision was taken without the matter returning to committee, and without consulting residents.

This means that, unless local residents step up and take action, there will be no one at the appeal arguing the case that the Council's own committee made. We are not prepared to let that happen!

What we stand to lose

Our beloved local countryside. The fields where local people walk their dogs and the nature and wildlife those fields support.

This is not a small development. The applicants' own drawings show how huge these buildings would be, structures that would tower over the open fields and dominate the landscape for miles.

A far smaller scheme nearby was refused at appeal in 2019 for its impact on the countryside.

Why these sheds were refused

The Planning Committee, and the 2019 Inspector before it, identified serious and defensible grounds. Unfortunately, these are the reasons the Council has now declined to defend.

With the help of our legal and expert team, we will demonstrate the harms these massive schemes will cause to the local area, including:

• Character and appearance: vast industrial sheds wholly out of keeping with the open, rural landscape, the same harm the Inspector recognised in 2019.
• Inappropriate location: development on open countryside, conflicting with the Council's own local plan policies on where buildings should go.
• Cumulative impact: judged alongside the Oxfordshire rail freight interchange and other schemes pressing in around Junction 10, the combined harm is immense.
• Roads and traffic: thousands of extra HGV and vehicle movements onto already busy narrow local roads, with consequences for safety and village life.
• Water and infrastructure: local water and sewerage systems at Ardley do not have the capacity for developments of this size.
• Ecology and environment: more than 5 km of high-value hedgerow lost; inadequate, out of date survey work and a failure to properly assess impacts on priority species and the wider environment.

Why we need your help now

With the Council standing aside, the job of defending their own rejection of these sheds falls to the community. Your donations will fund two things: the legal fees of putting our case at the appeal, and the wider campaign that supports it, including our website, leaflets and posters to get our message out there.  

Tritax and Albion are massive corporations with deep pockets. We cannot match their budgets, but with your support we will instruct the right people to argue our case and make sure the real harm these warehouses would cause is properly put to the Planning Inspector. Together with Stoke Lyne Parish Council and our neighbours across the surrounding villages, we are determined that local people will not be silenced because the Council abandoned us.

Every contribution, large or small, takes us closer to saving Baynards Green.

What happens next

The appeal has been lodged, and an appeal hearing is set for 22 September 2026. The outcome will be decided by a Planning Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State. That makes it all the more important that residents are properly represented and that the case for refusal is heard.

We cannot do this without you. Thank you for standing with us.

Follow the campaign at stokelyneactionteam.co.uk, on Facebook and on Instagram.