LONG-MOOTED plans to knock down two houses for 14 flats in an upmarket Botley road should be approved, a council officer has said.

Vale of White Horse District Council officer Martin Deans said the plan for the semi-detached homes in Yarnells Hill would not impact on neighbours or highway safety.

And developer Peter Chase said the plan – for one-bedroom flats in three blocks – would provide much-needed affordable homes.

But some residents said the area needs more family homes instead.

The council’s planning committee will be asked to make a decision on the plan.

Officer received sixteen letters opposed the plan, which was first submitted in 2007 but put on hold until sewerage improvement works in the area were completed.

They included concerns about “overdevelopment”, the loss of family housing, privacy and light, noise and “dangerous” car access.

Resident Claire Parke said: “The address of Yarnells Hill carries a price premium already paid by ourselves and our neighbours.”

She said: “It is unlikely individual purchasers will be able to buy, it will be mainly couples, in most cases I suspect having two cars.”

And the 17 proposed parking spaces were “barely sufficient”, she said.

Another Yarnells Hill resident pointed to a “pattern evolving” of knocking down homes for flats.

She said: “This area is very much made up of families and it is sad to see this being forgotten.

“We are really in need of smaller family homes for young families starting out, not tiny flats with a big turnaround of tenants.”

Gerard Fegan branded 14 flats “extremely excessive” and the number of parking spaces “nowhere near adequate”.

North Hinksey Parish Council said the plan would be “out of character” with the area and the “inadequate” parking would push cars on to Sweetmans Road and Yarnells Hill, posing a safety risk.

But Mr Deans’s report said the distance between the new properties and two neighbours was acceptable and no principal rooms would overlook one another.

It meets a council policy for one parking space per property and they would be close to public transport, jobs, shops and services, it said.

Mr Deans said: “The proposal has an acceptable impact on the character and appearance of the area.”

Mr Chase said there is a “pressing need to provide a wider choice of dwelling in this area”.

He added this was preferable to “building more and more larger family homes” such as nearby new houses “in the £1m price range”.

And he said there was an “ever-growing need” for one- and two-bedroom homes. The committee will meet at Abbey House, Abingdon, at 6.30pm on Thursday. The public can attend.