10.11.13 47

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What you get A one-, two- orthree-bedroom flat or house inthe Garden Quarter, a newdevelopment converting thebuildings of an old RAF baseWho to call 01869 253999,cityandcountry.co.uk

NotreadyfortakeoffA former RAF base has been turned into housing—butwhere’s the camaraderie?

A41

M40

M1

Bicester

Milton Keynes5 miles

Garden Quarter

Oxford

The development has handsomemilitary buildings, but feels emptyTh

Bicester,Oxfordshire,from £179,500

The solicitorRecently, 28 solar panels wereput on the roof opposite myhouse. The roof was raised foran extension, so it is higher thannormal. I consider so manypanels excessive, especiallywhen they are 30yd from mybedroom window. The owner ofthe property says that the councilgave him permission, and that,under permitted development,he did not need to seek approvalfrom neighbours. Is this right?

Sadie Tearle, Lewes

Permitted development rights forsolar panels are given in Class APart 40 Schedule 2 of the Townand Country (General PermittedDevelopment) Order 1995.Crucially, the rights are fettered— the panels must be sited tominimise their effect on the look ofthe building and the “amenity”(appearance) of the area. Inaddition, they do not apply to listedbuildings or conservation areas.Ask your local planning authorityto take action if you believe thepanels fall foul of these limitations.In a recent case, a council servedan enforcement notice for removalof some panels, upheld on appeal.The inspector found that a balancemust be struck between theappearance of the area andbuilding, and the financial viabilityof solar panels. When the balancetips too far towards the latter,it will be outside the scope ofpermitted development.

Alex Ground is a solicitorat Russell-Cooke LLP;russell-cooke.co.uk

The plumberI keep getting an overheat erroron my new boiler. The engineersays that air must be getting in,and that the only way to correct itis to change to a sealed system.Is this true?

Blaine Tookey, by email

Any restriction that prevents waterfrom cooling quickly can result in“boiler overheat”. The mostcommon causes are air in thesystem, a blockage or a defectiveheating pump. Under mostcircumstances, I would adviseventing air from the radiators,checking for obvious blockagessuch as closed valves, and feelingor listening to the pump to ensureit is spinning. In your case, it’slikely that the flow temperaturethermistor in the boiler is reactingat cooler temperatures than itshould. A new one will cost no morethan £20, and can be fitted by anengineer on the Gas Safe Register.There is no need to convert yoursystem to a “sealed” one.

Grahame Crew is generalmanager at WPJ Heating;wpjheating.co.uk

Do you need help fromone of our experts?Email your questions topropertyexperts@

sunday-times.co.uk. Advice isgiven without responsibility

This week finds me in philo-sophical mood. Rather in themanner of a TED Talk, or asimilar gobbet of prepackagedpublic intellectualism, I feelmoved to ruminate on the

meaning and nature of “community inthe global age”. And so would you, ifyou’d just been where I’ve been.

Bicester North station is what startedit. The train from Marylebone was stuffedwith Chinese and Japanese passengers— because this is the stop for the shop-ping mecca that is Bicester Village. Thereare signs on the platforms in Asianscripts, presumably telling them this iswhere they have to get off. BV, as youprobably know, is not a real village, but agiant shopping centre, built in the archi-tectural vernacular of New England (noidea why), where you can buy discounteddesigner gear. Some of the swankierstores have bouncers, velvetropes, the lot. Sounds terrible.

Yet label-crazy Asiancustomers can’t get enough,apparently, and the con-troller in the taxi office atthe station told me thatMiddle Eastern visitors arealso big fans. It has putlittle Bicester, 16 miles fromOxford, on the global map.

So the taxi drivers on thecab rank outside the station allknow where it is, and canwhizz you there in a heartbeatif you can’t bear to wait forthe next shuttle bus, but theydidn’t have a clue about mydestination. Which I found abit disconcerting — I mean, BVis all very well, and probablycontributes a lot to the localeconomy, but the Garden Quarter iswhere actual people actually live. Andwhere the developer behind it, City &Country, boasts that it is “creating asense of community”.

I reckon there’s probably more fellowfeeling among what we might call the“designer discount shopping commu-nity” on the shuttle bus, bonding overtheir excited anticipation of cut-priceLouboutins and Barbours to come, thanthere is in the manicured emptinessof the Garden Quarter, a “semi-ruralretreat” on the edge of Bicester.

It’s not a “gated community”. No,that’s frowned on. In fact, City & Countrywanted this former RAF base to feel partof the local area and took down theperimeter fences and gates. Anyone cango in, any time, if they want to — butwhy would they? There’s no shop, nopub, just a collection of smallish homesin some tidy landscaping.

OK, I have to concede that it is, intheory, a good idea — take an abandoned

military site and turn the build-military site and turn the build-ings into housing stock — but itings into housing stock — but it feels so empty and soulless. feels so empty and soulless. The houses are on parade andThe houses are on parade and standing to attention, but it is astanding to attention, but it is a rather dull uniform.

This is one of Sir HughTrenchard’s bomber bases,developed in the 1920s and 1930sto beef up our air power, and theone- and two-storey buildingsare handsome, sturdy, military-issue brick neo-Georgian.

(That’s(That’s phase one; phase two has laterexamples of air-force institutional build-ing styles.) But the expanses of paradeground (now lawn) and the landscapedbits between them seem to precludethe neighbourly chumminess of atraditional urban street layout.

If, like some of the residents, you arefrom the Bicester area, you probably haveyour own personal networks or “commu-nity”. But moving in from somewhereelse? Well, you’d most likely be takingadvantage of the commuter links — 20minutes’ drive to Oxford, 50 minutes onthe train to London — so you’d be out atwork, commuting or sleeping, with littletime to try to get involved in your sur-roundings. Isn’t that the alienation we’reall in danger of succumbing to in ourrootless world? I guess it’s no different tohow new developments on the edge oftowns have always felt — boring dormi-tories, with a distinct sense of real lifegoing on somewhere else.

Paradoxically, it’s one of the GardenQuarter’s most attractive features — on

paper — that makes it seem so lifeless.The 212 homes (82 completed in phaseone, the rest to come in phase two)follow the layout of the military base,with only 33 brand-new properties builtas infill, so the density of the 23-acredevelopment is noticeably lower thanwould have been allowed on a sitewithout its historic connections.

The one-, two- and three-bedroomhouses, flats and “cottages” (units inthe single-storey buildings or semi-detached bungalows) are a bit small, butnice enough: they’re fitted out to agood standard, with wooden floors andluxurious-looking bathrooms, thoughdeploying the usual cunning omissionof any wardrobes or chests of drawers inmost of the show-home bedrooms. Theyalso generally combine the kitchen,living room and dining table in onespace, in the modern manner.

So, as far as I’m concerned, lots not tolike. But what do I know? They’re sellingfaster than half-price designer treggingsin that place down the road. Only 13properties remain for sale in phase one;a two-bedroom cottage, priced at£210,000 for the June 2012 launch, willnow set you back at least £265,000. Rentalyields are a comfortable 5%.

However, it probably needs the bond-ing experience of being in a wartimebomber squadron to whip up a realsense of shared lives.

If you would like Karen to cast hercritical eye over a property you are selling,email btb@sunday-times.co.uk

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