MORE students could be set to move into an Oxford Brookes University complex that can already house 750.

Plans to add 20 bedrooms to Cheney Student Village in Cheney Lane, Headington, will go before members of Oxford City Council’s east area planning committee tomorrow.

If councillors back the proposals a storage area will be converted into the 20 new bedrooms, with living and kitchen space and a new junior common room.

The application, which council officers say should be approved, also includes plans for a new secure bicycle store.

It was not considered a ‘major’ application by council officers and so was not set to go before a committee to be decided.

Council staff can declare something as a ‘major application’ if they think its size and effect on the community warrant it.

Such bids have included plans for 270 new homes in Littlemore.

Councillors James Fry, Sian Taylor, Susan Brown and Dee Sinclair called in the Headington plans themselves as they were concerned about the potential impact on residents in the area.

That meant it must be considered by the committee instead of just planning officers.

But Ms Brown said she had heard no objections to the plans from residents.

She said: “I felt it was a sufficiently large application that it should be looked at in front of the committee.

“Major applications which will have a bigger impact on local communities are looked at in committee.

“This did not quite match that description but I thought it should be looked at. Being in committee also gives local residents the chance to raise issues.

“But nobody in the area has raised any problems with me.”

The student village is made up of 15 four-storey buildings, including one known as the Gatehouse Building.

This contains student accommodation and communal areas, as well as storage space.

Developers want to turn the storage area space into new bedrooms.A cycle store in the western corner of the site would be converted to storage space.

A new cycle store for 62 bikes would then be built, also in the western corner of the site.

In his report, planning officer Rob Fowler said: “The proposed development is not visible in the wider public realm and would not have an impact on the amenity of neighbouring residents.”

The conditions state work must being within an agreed time limit and that the rooms should be used in term time only.