A judicial review on the decision to grant planning permission for Oxford United’s stadium would be an opportunity to address concerns that “were not aired”, a politician has said.

Earlier this month, Friends of Stratfield Brake initiated legal action against Cherwell District Council’s planning permission of the 16,000-seater stadium at The Triangle in Kidlington.

This was after the plans for the stadium were approved by the Government and the district council last year.

Green Kidlington councillor Ian Middleton, a vocal critic of the project, said he is pleased the group is looking at the legal challenge.

Mr Middleton said he is concerned about “several aspects” of the planning application and the “way that it was handled” by various agencies.

But Cherwell District Council and Oxford United both remain confident the process has been thorough and the right choice was made.

Oxford United’s new stadium (Image: Oxford United)

“I don’t feel the traffic assessment was sufficiently robust and appeared to be based on flawed comparisons with areas and other stadia that were entirely inappropriate,” the councillor said.

“In my view this produced a biased and inaccurate conclusion on the amounts of disruption that will be caused by regular road closures or how long and extensive those closures will be.

“I’m also very concerned about the degree of environmental damage that the development will cause and raised questions about that at the last full county council meeting.

“The response I got from the cabinet member gave no real reassurance that the true impact of any of this has been properly assessed.”

He said the section 106 agreement, which was agreed in February and would see at least £5.6m back into the community, “underlined [his] fears that none of the promised community benefits will actually materialise with virtually all of the developer contributions being only to the benefit of the stadium complex itself”.

“There are also still grave concerns about the infrastructures capacity issues such as fresh water and sewage,” he added.

A model of Oxford United’s new stadium (Image: Fortitude Communications)

“I continue to feel that this is entirely the wrong location for a development of this type both for the club and for local residents.

“I hope that the judicial review will be an opportunity to properly examine issues that I don’t feel were sufficiently aired during the planning process or during the committee hearing last year.”

A spokesman for Cherwell District Council said previously: “The council is confident in its decision and in the event of any judicial review will robustly defend its position.”

And Oxford United’s spokesman added: “We are aware of reports that judicial review proceedings have been filed with the High Court.

“A rigorous and detailed planning process was followed by Cherwell District Council, and we look forward to supporting them defend their decision.”