PLANS for a business park in North Oxford could be defeated by opponents who say hundreds of homes should go there instead.

A two-week inquiry into Oxford City Council’s blueprint for the Northern Gateway scheme will begin on Tuesday.

The council and developer behind the proposals said it will create thousands of jobs and include up to 500 homes, a hotel and a 90,000sqm business park.

But an alliance of neighbouring authorities and countryside campaigners are set to challenge the scheme in their evidence to a planning inspector.

South Oxfordshire District Council, Vale of White Horse District Council and Cherwell District Council will say the central piece of land between the A40 and A44 should take on more houses, instead of the main business park.

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Their call on planning inspector Christine Newmarch to reject the scheme will also be backed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

John Cotton, South Oxfordshire District Council leader, said: “We oppose the site being used for a business park because the city council should be considering it for housing.

“There is a housing shortage in Oxford and this is a good site for housing. Building a business park there will not make things better.”

The challenge to the business park plan comes as Oxfordshire’s district councils face taking on an extra 20,000 homes between them that Oxford City Council says it cannot find space for.

A government-backed report released last year said 100,000 more homes were needed in the county by 2031, 32,000 of them in Oxford.

But the city council said there was room for just 10,000.

Yet it emerged this week that one reason more housing was not considered for the site was that St John’s College, a key landowner, was against the idea.

In a background document for the inquiry the city council said: “This option was not tested as it was not considered to be deliverable.

“St John’s College’s sole aspiration for the Northern Gateway is to deliver an employment [or] science park on the site.

“Anything that compromised this would result in the college not pursuing the site for development at all.”

The comments were seized upon by the CPRE, which accused the college of being a “dog in the manger” over its land.

CPRE Oxfordshire director Helen Marshall said: “We have long argued that the proposed office development at the Northern Gateway will worsen the housing shortage.”

But Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said the site had always been set aside for employment.