NEIGHBOURS have spoken of their relief at a decision by city council planners to ‘dump’ plans for a rubbish tip near their homes.

Property developer Martin Young wanted to use a legal loophole to turn a 20ft by 40ft piece of land next to three homes in Long Wall in Littlemore into an official tip.

He claimed the city council had not acted against flytippers who contributed to ‘40 tonnes’ of waste on the site.

The developer, from Headington Hill, hoped by proving the small site had been used continuously for rubbish for 10 years, the loophole would allow him to turn it into a recognised dump.

But last week the city council threw out his tip application, claiming he had not submitted enough evidence showing it had been used as a dumping ground for more than a decade.

Neighbours whose gardens border the land swelcomed the decision. Dr David O’Shaughnessy and wife Gobnait, whose garden and vegetable patch is next to the ground and separated from it only by a wooden fence, said they were extremely glad.

Dr O’Shaughnessy said: “Our main concern was that rats would be attracted to the area.

“I am extremely glad we’re not going to have a rubbish dump in our back garden. We also hope we won’t have a house built which will also encroach on our garden.”

Mr Young, 65, previously applied for permission to build a chalet on the land – which he bought for £600 in October 2007 – but the plan was refused in April.

He said he hoped by applying to turn the area into a rubbish tip, he could show people that a chalet would be a preferable option.

But Mr Young said: “I’m not upset that the application has been thrown out. I will appeal it.”

He is still waiting for the outcome of a planning appeal to determine whether he can build the chalet-style house.

Littlemore city councillor Gill Sanders spoke out against the application for a dump at a south east area committee meeting last month. She said: “I’m absolutely overjoyed. This is common sense prevailing and an awful lot of people will be utterly relieved. It was an unbelievably foolish request in the first place.”

A city council spokesman said: “There were a number of reasons for refusal including that we did not consider ad-hoc or occasional flytipping on the land amounted to ‘development’ thus leading to a change of use of the land.

“The full reasons for refusal are available on our website.”