A CONTROVERSIAL revamp of Oxford Brookes University’s Headington campus was approved tonight despite opposition from local residents.

Oxford City Council’s strategic development control committee voted nine to three in favour of the plans at the Town Hall.

The university can now push ahead with the £132m development, which will house the university’s library, IT suite, lecture theatre and student union.

Residents had expressed fears that the student centre will create light and noise pollution in the Headington Hill Conservation Area, despite the university lowering the height of its building by up to three metres at the western side of the structure.

The building will now have four storeys above ground which will face Headington Hill.

Planning officers had recommended the plans for the university’s Gipsy Lane campus be approved, but Colin Rosser, 69, a spokesman for Headington Hill Residents’ Association, told the committee: “This enterprise is on another scale, as a hostile public outcry in the wider Oxford community has shown.

“The building is oppressive, and for those of us opening our eyes to it; where once we saw sky this is depressive.”

Iffley Fields councillor Elise Benjamin added: “I still think the height and bulk is too much. It gives a clear sense of enclosure which gives a sense of intrusion and is a loss of privacy for the residents.”

However, Osney and Jericho councillor Colin Cook said: “I think Brookes should be commended for the work they have done on this application to mitigate the impact of it.

“I think they strike the right balance between effective use of land and the needs of the conservation area.”

The university’s previous plans for a larger £150m building were approved by the committee in August last year.

However, that decision was called-in and rejected by full council a month later.

The same process exists to call-in the application again if eleven councillors agree to it and, after the meeting, Mr Rosser said he intended to contact councillors to persuade them to do so.

A condition has been put on the application that the university cannot occupy the facility until the number of Brookes’ students in private accommodation in Oxford falls to and remains below 3,000.

The university currently has 3,765 students in private accommodation in the city. However it expects to be able to fulfill the condition before work is completed on the new building in summer 2013.

Speaking after the meeting Paul Large, acting registrar for the university, said: “I am very pleased with the decision taken by the planning committee this evening.

“We have listened carefully to the concerns of local residents and councillors and made significant compromises.”