PLANS for a large business park in North Oxford should not go forward until the city has a entirely new development plan, it was argued yesterday.

At the opening of the Northern Gateway inquiry, South Oxfordshire and Vale of the White Horse district councils said the scheme was based on outdated evidence.

The business park proposed by Oxford City Council would include up to 500 homes, a 90,000 sq metre employment area and hotel.

A two-week examination of the scheme by planning inspector Christine Newmarch began yesterday and will finish next Thursday.

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But the district councils said a Government-backed report released last year – which said Oxford needed 20,000 more homes than previously thought – meant the city council should reconsider its plans with a view to including more housing.

Representing the Vale and South Oxfordshire district councils, Ms Suzanne Ornsby QC told the inspector: “The only sensible way to do that is for the city council to have a new Local Plan.

“[That] should be brought forward in sync with the other local authorities in Oxfordshire, so this can all be comprehensively planned in light of the new evidence base which exists.”

As part of Oxford’s development plan approved in 2010, the Core Strategy, the city council had planned for at least 8,000 new homes up to 2026.

But last year a Governmentbacked strategic housing market assessment for the whole of Oxfordshire said Oxford would need to find an extra 20,000 by 2031.

City council planning officer Adrian Roche said when the Core Strategy was approved it was already known the real need was greater than 8,000.

Mr Roche told the inquiry: “There is no fundamental change in circumstances. We had a huge housing need in 2010 and we have a huge housing need now.

“It was always clear that [previous housing figures] would not meet the actual housing need in Oxford.” An employment-led Northern Gateway was also part of several regional plans already agreed by councils, he added.

During the inquiry’s first meeting, fears were also raised about removing a 7.4-hectare piece of land between Wolvercote and the A40 from the protected Green Belt, so that homes could be built there.

The land also lies within a conservation area.

The city council said it had carried out a review of the Green Belt land and decided to take it out because it would not cause “unacceptable” harm.

When Ms Newmarch asked if the amount being removed was “significant”, city council planning officer Rachel Williams replied: “Not to my mind.”

But Ian Scargill, of the Oxfordshire Green Belt Network campaign group, told Ms Newmarch: “To our minds it will obliterate its existing rural character and its historical nature.”