Residents at a mobile home park are outraged after a council leader labelled the area "a dump".

People living at Duvall Park in Upper Heyford took offence after Cherwell District Council leader Barry Wood made the comments during a planning meeting.

Mr Wood apologised if he had caused offence by making the remark.

In a letter to Mr Wood, resident Dave Medhurst, said: "I find your description of this park as 'a dump' to be both very insulting and offensive to myself and all the other tenants.

"It amazes me that a person who holds such a position on the council can make such a crass and stupid remark.

"The tenants here are a very close community who are always willing to help each other. We take great pride in how we look after our elderly tenants."

Mr Medhurst, who has lived on the site for 19 years, invited Mr Wood to look around the park. He said: "You will find we take care of our homes and gardens, so you will soon realise just how foolish you have made yourself look in our eyes."

But Mr Wood said his comments at last month's meeting referred to the approach to the site, and not the park itself.

Mr Wood said: "At a recent planning meeting there was an application to extend the caravan park at Heyford, which was turned down.

"At the meeting, council officers were saying how important it was that the caravan park was in the siting of a conservation area.

"I said I felt that was a misleading argument because it was a conservation area in respect of the hangers and cold war paraphernalia and that in any event, as you drove up the road and approached the camp from the Middleton Stoney direction and saw the entrance way to the caravan park, that quite frankly the area did not look like a conservation area - it looked like a bit of a dump."

Mr Wood added he hadn't meant to cause offence and immediately withdrew his comments when asked to do so by the meeting's chairman Catherine Fulljames.

He promised to visit the park after next month's local elections.