TWO North Oxford neighbourhoods hoping to take control of planning in their area have been given a boost.

Wolvercote and Summertown and St Margarets are hoping to draw up neighbourhood plans so they can influence development locally.

Earlier this year they submitted neighbourhood boundaries to Oxford City Council for approval and planning officers have given them the approval to go ahead.

The neighbourhoods will now have to be formally approved by the councils’s city executive board tomorrow .

Once the neighbourhood boundaries are approved the two communities will begin drawing up the plans.

John Bleach, of the Wolvercote Neighbourhood Forum, said villagers hoped a neighbourhood plan would give them more influence over developments such as the Northern Gateway proposal at the Pear Tree junction.

He added: “Of course we are very pleased it has been given approval. We are working on a timeline but it will still be a couple of years before we get to a referendum.”

Frenchay Road resident Martin Roberts, chairman of the steering group behind the Summertown and St Margarets plan, said: “We are pleased the planning officers have agreed with us. One of the biggest potential developments in the area is the Diamond Place car park and Ewert House, which are earmarked for development.

“We are really wanting to do our utmost to ensure that development will be good.”

Under the Localism Act, which became law in 2011, neighbourhoods can put together legally-binding planning policy to sit alongside that created by councils.

A neighbourhood plan would have to go through a public consultation as well as a local referendum to become a reality.

Such a scheme has become reality in Thame, where a neighbourhood plan was approved in a public vote in May.

Neighbourhood plans will include rules on new where houses, businesses and shops should go and what they should look like. Council planning officer Sarah Harrison said in a report both proposed neighbourhoods complied with the national guidelines.

A decision will be made by the city executive board at 5pm tomorrow at a public meeting in Town Hall.

She added that a third proposed neighbourhood, Jericho, would be considered at a later date because discussions were still taking place between the council and residents.