CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a 190-room student housing block off Cowley Road in Oxford have admitted defeat.

A2Dominion’s proposals for the development on the former Travis Perkins builders’ merchants’ site have been recommended for approval by planning officers at Oxford City Council .

Objections were raised about the scheme, which was slightly amended from the original plans agreed in 2009 to house graduate students from St Hilda’s College.

The college has since dropped out of the deal, and residents are concerned the accommodation will eventually house students from Oxford Brookes University .

Ablett Close resident Chris Honeywell, 65, said he had given up fighting the plans and accepted they would be approved at a meeting on Wednesday.

He said: “The new plans they have put in are so much like the previous plans that there aren’t going to be any grounds to refuse them.

“It was originally sold as a graduates centre for students from St Hilda’s, which sounds a lot more acceptable than undergraduates from Brookes to local people.

“It’s thought that graduates would probably be more adult than undergraduates from Brookes.

“It seems to me that the whole thing is being bulldozed through no matter what, and I don’t see the point in fighting it.”

East Oxford Area Residents’ Associations Forum spokesman Sietske Boeles added: “We don’t know who the end user is going to be. We fear it will be Brookes.”

Although Oxford Brookes university spokesman Edward Reed did not rule out the university using the accommodation, he said: “There’s no link between us and this development at the moment.”

Members of the council’s west area planning committee have been urged to approve the scheme at their meeting on Wednesday.

A2Dominion development director Gerry Walker said he was delighted by the report.

He said: “The plans for this scheme, in terms of layout and design principles, are broadly similar to the scheme from St Hilda’s that already has a reserved matters planning approval on this site.

“Once it became apparent to us that St Hilda’s was not moving forward on the project, we focused on the design of the development and the planning application.

“We will look to finalise agreements with potential end users of the development later in the year.

“At this stage, A2Dominion has not selected any end users.”

City council deputy leader Ed Turner could not say whether the proposal would have an impact on the target to limit the number of students living outside university-controlled accommodation to under 3,000 for each institution.

He said: “It would depend on whether it’s occupied by Oxford University or Brookes’ students and I don’t know the answer to that.” The committee meeting at Oxford Town Hall, in St Aldate’s, starts at 6pm on Wednesday.