OXFORD Brookes University is under mounting pressure to rethink its plans for a £150m new campus from an alliance of conservationist and residents’ groups.

The university’s plans to redevelop its Gipsy Lane campus as “a new gateway to Oxford” will go before councillors in a few weeks’ time, but there has been an upsurge in opposition to its six-storey student centre.

Oxford Civic Society condemned the building as “overbearing and inhuman in scale”, while Oxford Preservation Trust has called on the university to withdraw its planning application in the face of strong objections.

Since Headington Hill Residents’ Association complained that the size of the scheme would blight an already cramped area, five other residents’ groups in the area have raised objections about the scheme. A Stop Brookes petition, to be submitted to Oxford City Council next week, has been signed by more than 900 people.

In April, deputy vice-chancellor Rex Knight said the university’s plans to replace ageing buildings on its main Headington campus had not provoked any formal complaints from local groups.

Debbie Dance, director of Oxford Preservation Trust, said: “Over the last few weeks the strength of feeling against this application seems to have grown daily.

“Discussions need to take place with local residents and others to see if a solution can be found which is more sympathetic to the character of the surrounding area. We hope the university will withdraw the application to allow this to happen.”

Tony Joyce, of the Civic Society, called for the six-storey building, housing a library, to be moved to the centre of the site.

In one of 40 submissions opposing the application he writes: “Positioning a large building close to the western boundary of the site makes it tower unpleasantly over houses in Headington Hill.”

But Mr Knight said: “Given the time and effort we put into consulting people, we are slightly disappointed by the number of protesters coming out of the woodwork.

“I think it reflects the fact that the Headington Hill residents have been effective in mobilising other residents’ groups, who will not be affected by the building. It is nowhere near them.”

Mr Knight said the university had already modified its plans to meet Headington Hill residents’ concerns about such issues as light pollution and being overlooked.

He added: “We have done everything we could to address all the issues.”

Brookes hopes the new centre will be open in 2012.

Meanwhile, residents and city councillors in Headington are opposing plans to demolish Dorset House, a large Victorian property which used to be Brookes’s occupational therapy school.

Property development company Quintain, which owns the property, has submitted a demolition notice to pull down Dorset House and the buildings to the rear.

Lib Dem city councillor David Rundle said: “It is not listed and there is no legal bar to the owner destroying their property. But Dorset House is a very distinguished building. And, of course people are also worried about what will replace it.”

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