COUNCILLORS will again be asked to approve a 300-student boarding school in Headington after rejecting it last month.

The proposals would expand Cotuit Hall - currently used as student accommodation for international sixth form the EF Academy - into a self-contained boarding school.

Almost 100 residents objected while there were more than 70 letters of support.

It will be decided on by the city council's planning review committee next week after its east area planning committee turned it down in November.

The committee said the increased footprint and change of use would cause harm to 'the open, quiet, residential character of the Headington Hill Conservation Area' - which the scheme's public benefits would not outweigh.

But the plans were 'called-in' by 16 city councillors who felt the reasons were not strong enough to defeat a possible appeal.

So a fresh set of councillors have again been recommended to approve the project on Wednesday at 6pm at Town Hall.

The building formerly housed just over 100 Oxford Brookes students it was sold in 2011.

The site has since been used as accommodation for students at the EF Academy at Plater College, also in Pullens Lane.

Its lecture hall and refectory buildings would be demolished to create space for 113 bedrooms up from 92 - to accommodate 244 students.