Residents in west Oxford are being given another chance to have their say about future proposals for a former old people's home site.

A public meeting is being held on Wednesday (November 27) at the West Oxford Community Centre to discuss plans to redevelop Oseney Court in Botley Road into three interlinked blocks for pensioners' flats and social housing.

Oxford City Council, which has deliberated the future of the site with county council colleagues for the past two years, has decided to seek local residents' views on the proposals before a decision on the Warden Housing application is made.

A year ago, the pressure group Oseney Court Action Committee insisted that any future use of the former home, which was closed in 1999, must be for the benefit of elderly people. It said west Oxford had 30 per cent more lone single pensioners than the city average, but no public residential or day care facilities for elderly people.

The county council had already attached a condition to the sale of the land that it had to include, as part of any redevelopment proposals, elderly care facilities.

But hopes were soon dashed when it was revealed that the county was going to sell the site to Warden Housing for an estimated £2.1m, but with only added provision for the disabled and not the elderly.

The plans have changed again, with the present application proposing the demolition of the existing home and its replacement with 44 flats -- 24 for old people, 10 for social housing, and the remaining 10 for vulnerable people needing support from social services.

Philip Turner, the county's assistant principal planning officer, said: "What decision is taken when it comes before committee on December 10 depends very much on what public comment is made at the meeting," he said.

"The whole idea of this is to sound out local people and make sure they have had the chance to express their views.

"If it was felt that the scheme ought to be amended, then we would seek to bring this into the proposals."