VICTORIAN working class cottages and industrial buildings and an “ecological highway” linking Oxford to the countryside are just some of the features of Jericho city planners wish to preserve.

Oxford’s first industrial suburb is set to become the city’s latest conservation area when Oxford City Council takes the final decision next month.

It would give the buildings greater protection from redevelopment and place tighter controls on what building and alteration work the council would give permission for.

This will include works such as replacing windows, painting brickwork or altering roofs.

More than 100 people responded to a public consultation with the vast majority in favour of the move.

Oxford Civic Society chairman Peter Thompson said it was the final piece of the jigsaw to protect the centre of Oxford, as adjacent neighbourhoods already had conservation status.

He said: “The only downside is there is a little bit more bureaucracy with planning applications.

“We think that is justified by special character of the area.”

Jenny Mann, secretary of Jericho Community Association, said it would mean the area was no longer the “poor relation” to other celebrated areas of Oxford.

She agreed with heritage officers who said minor changes and unsympathetic developments had chipped away at the suburb’s character. A failed plan to build 54 flats on the former Castle Mill boatyard site in 2008 sparked calls for a conservation area to be created.

Ms Mann said: “Oxford does not treasure its Victorian heritage enough.

“There are wonderful streets that tell their own story of the people who have lived here.”

But one respondent to the council consultation said: “This will make it even harder for the working class to remain in the area, rents will rise and housing will become even more out of reach.”

Aside from its architectural heritage, the area has cultural significance for the city.

Jericho Boatyard, a 160-year-old wharf on the Oxford Canal, was popularised after author Philip Pullman set parts of his best-selling Northern Lights and Lyra’s Oxford books there.

The suburb also featured in the first Inspector Morse television episode, The Dead of Jericho, screened in 1987.

Oxford has 16 conservation areas, defined as “areas of special architectural or historical interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance”.

The scheme would need to be approved by the affected area committees and strategic development control committee next month.