GREEN Party leader Natalie Bennett has said a plan to build a 150-bed hotel in an historic part of Oxford is “clearly inappropriate”.

Ms Bennett visited the Cooper Callas building on Paradise Street yesterday at the invitation of local resident and Green Party candidate Kate Prendergast.

The plans by Dominvs Group to build a £30m hotel have caused controversy as residents fear the historic former Brewery Gate pub on the same site would have to be demolished.

Ms Bennett said: “I have visited this lovely area of Oxford before, and seeing it again today, it’s clear this is a totally inappropriate development.

“It’s a residential, historic area, and a retail or hotel development is not needed.”

Ms Prendergast will hold a “networking” event for concerned residents at the Slug and Lettuce pub in Oxford Castle on Wednesday, September 16, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Dominvs is expected to submit plans to the city council this month.

Ms Prendergast said: “This building is in an important conservation area dating to Saxon times in one of the earliest inhabited parts of the city.

“The old Brewery Gate pub, which the developers want to demolish, is part of the historic fabric of the area and it would be a travesty to demolish it.”