Oxford Brookes University is today due to confirm its decision to submit a fresh planning application to redevelop its main Headington campus.

The university’s new plans for a £132m library and teaching building look to have won over influential opponents of the original scheme, rejected by Oxford City Council in September.

Faced with the prospect of a long and costly appeal, Brookes wasted little time in revising its designs in a final bid to address criticisms that the centrepiece building was too big.

The new scheme cuts the height of the library by a storey while adding another £1m to the cost of redeveloping the Gipsy Lane campus.

But Brookes made it clear that the university would only press ahead with the revised scheme, instead of going to appeal with the original one, as it had threatened, if it proved to be more acceptable to local residents.

The university’s acting registrar, Paul Large, said he was happy with the initial response from residents following the unveiling of the new plans.

Mr Large said: “People have acknowledged that we have made quite a significant amount of movement to address the issues raised when the last application was refused. People said they liked the look and feel of the new building, which did not happen last time, and we feel ourselves that this is a better design.

“Important compromises have been made. We have now gone as far as we can to soften the impact of the building.”

As reported in The Oxford Times two weeks ago, the height of the library has been reduced from five storeys with a basement, to four storeys with a larger basement, cutting its height by three metres on the western side.

The new plans show that the building has been moved two metres further away from the western boundary, with reading rooms projecting into the public square to make the building appear less flat.

Glass cladding on the western side of the building has also been removed, following complaints from its neighbours about reflection and that their homes would be overlooked.

Crucially, Brookes’s efforts to address local concerns were welcomed yesterday by Oxford Civic Society, which had strongly opposed the first Brookes planning application.

The group’s chairman, Tony Joyce, said: “What they are now proposing is clearly an improvement and has been designed to meet the reasons for the rejection of the previous scheme.

“Brookes might not have gone quite as far as some local residents would have liked, in order to be perfectly satisfied. But there has to be a compromise.”

Susan Lake, for the Headington Hill residents, said they would continue to press for a further height reduction.

She said: “We feel there could be a rearrangement of the buildings to meet us halfway. We want them to push it further down and spread it outwards, but the university still wants this so-called piazza. We fear it is all about a vision of wanting something high to make a statement.”

Mr Large added: “We cannot do anything more about the height. But we are keen to see what we can do about other remaining concerns, such as reducing noise.”

The building originally proposed, but not submitted to the council, would have been six storeys, all above the ground. But in June, Brookes added £5m to the cost of the scheme by proposing a basement.