Now Piddington's sister village battles super-warehouse hell: Outrage as council 'abandons' residents fighting off 13 'mega-sheds'

Villagers fighting to stop the construction of a series of 'XXL' warehouses near their homes say they have been 'abandoned' by their local council after it said it would not contest an appeal by the project's backers.Stoke Lyne is mounting a people-powered defence against a proposed six million sq ft development proposed by Tritax Big Box and Albion Land at nearby Baynards Green. In all, it would contain 13 warehouses, some as much as 75 feet tall.The firms say the huge project would create thousands of jobs and vital business along the M40 corridor in Oxfordshire, with logistics firm DHL eyeing up the site.But councillors on the Lib Dem-run Cherwell District Council narrowly voted the plans down in January in the face of widespread community anger over the warehouses' size, the damaging effect on local traffic and the use of unspoiled agricultural land.The refusal has set the stage for an appeal being heard next week. However, the council will not be there to defend its own decision.Instead, the citizens of Stoke Lyne will be left to fight for themselves - after the local authority stepped back from the fray following 'legal and professional advice'.The town is just 10 miles from Piddington, which recently held a symbolic referendum to leave the UK after the Home Office announced plans to house 1,250 migrants at a nearby former military airfield, bypassing local authority opposition. Members of the Stoke Lyne Action Team, who have raised £50,000 to fight off warehouses that their council is refusing to battle Three of the 13 proposed warehouses to run alongside the M40 in Oxfordshire. Some could be as much as 75 feet tallA total of 285 out of 312 people who voted said they wanted to secede from the UK and the town has since declared itself a 'principality', similar to the offshore platform of Sealand, which is yet to gather any international recognition.Nevertheless, locals see the residents of Piddington as kindred spirits, standing alone against much bigger forces after concluding that they must speak up for themselves.Meanwhile, the council appears to have surrendered in advance. Chris Brant, deputy leader, said it had considered 'the likelihood of successfully defending' its own refusal before backing out. The Stoke Lyne Action Team - made up of concerned residents - is therefore the last front against the warehouses, backed up by a crowdsourced £50,000 legal fund.It has accused the council of 'unilaterally abandoning' its position, telling the Mail in a statement: 'Cherwell District Council refused every one of them [the warehouses]. It will not be there to defend them. 'That leaves a community of a few hundred people to face two huge national developers and their planning teams with no local authority standing alongside them.'Warehouses and their ill-effects are no stranger to communities across Britain. The now-infamous Astley Business Park in Wigan continues to torment residents after they say they weren't consulted on its gargantuan scale or round-the-clock noise (since temporarily curtailed following ceaseless local campaigning).At Baynards Green, locals are concerned about the loss of swathes of green space that are not even on the council's local plan - its blueprint for future development. At present, the land alongside the M40 that could house the new 'mega-sheds' is unspoilt Like Piddington (pictured), the residents of Stoke Lyne now feel they are having to go it aloneBaroness Prentis of Banbury, the former constituency MP, said: 'These warehouses are not in the Local Plan, and to my mind that is where this matter should begin and end. 'Cherwell District Council reached the right conclusion when it refused these applications. It should now stick to its guns and support the people who are relying on it to stand behind that decision.'Local resident Craig Mitchell said: 'I work in the construction industry and have built industrial distribution centres of a similar size before. 'The impact of these will be worse than everyone realises. They make promises of mitigation during the planning process; it never happens in reality.'Hugo Brown, a former Cherwell district councillor, added: 'It's acres and acres of open countryside to be built up. We are talking about building as tall as eight coaches stacked on top of each other. The planning case for these sheds is unacceptable.'Cherwell also has form here: after refusing too many large-scale applications that were later overturned on appeal, Keir Starmer's Government stripped it of its ability to decide them for itself in June. It blew through its entire £100,000 budget for planning appeals in the first four months of the last financial year. The appeal is instead being heard in the form of a public inquiry held by the Planning Inspectorate, which will have final say on the warehouses. It could last up to 18 days. But the Stoke Lyne Action Group are nevertheless urging councillors to attend the inquiry and defend their position: an open letter addressed to them has passed more than 400 signatures.Chris Brant, deputy leader of Cherwell District Council, said earlier this year: 'The decision not to actively defend the refusals at appeal has not been taken lightly.'Following detailed legal and professional advice, the council has had to consider not only the strength of local opposition but also the likelihood of successfully defending the reasons for refusal.'Regrettably, the evidence available to the council is not considered strong enough to provide a realistic prospect of success at appeal.'The application also lacks opposition from other statutory consultees like Highways england and the Environment Agency.But, with Monday looming, the Stoke Lyne Action Group remains hopeful that the inquiry will see things their way: a much smaller proposal in the same area was rejected on appeal in 2019. The current plans are some 80 times bigger in size.As it counts down the days to potential warehouse hell, its members have been trekking across the parish with signs reading: 'Stop 13 XXL sheds... make Cherwell keep their word!'Cherwell District Council was contacted for further comment.