A MAJOR planned hotel expansion looks set to be blocked despite claims of high demand for tourist accommodation in the city.

Bosses at the Oxford Spires Four Pillars Hotel in Abingdon Road want to build an extra 57 bedrooms.

The scheme would create a new building in the grounds, providing bedrooms as well as extending the dining room and adding 20 parking spaces.

But planning officers at Oxford City Council have recommended permission is refused next Tuesday.

It comes just months after Travelodge had its bid to open an 83-room hotel at the bottom of Abingdon Road thrown out due to parking concerns.

Figures from Visit England show there are 3,118 “serviced accommodation” rooms in Oxford, which includes hotels and bed and breakfasts.

This is more than similar- sized cities such as Chelmsford, which only has 646 rooms, and Canterbury which has 1,230. Meanwhile Cambridge, which has a population about 30,000 smaller than Oxford, has 1,913 rooms.

Susi Golding, director of Visit Oxfordshire, said: “There is a need in Oxford for good-quality hotel rooms year round. We are one of the top destinations in the UK bearing in mind our size, but it is leisure and business visitors.”

She declined to comment on the individual planning application for the Four Pillars and said it was not possible to compare Oxford with other cities.

The Oxford Spires Four Pillars, which opened in 1999, already has 174 bedrooms and the company claims it is regularly full.

It expects the development to create 12 new jobs for room attendants and catering assistants.

In a report to the west area planning committee, planning officer Matthew Parry said: “The two main extensions now proposed...would significantly increase the footprint of the hotel well above that of the buildings that it replaced. A reduced level of car parking provision would only exacerbate this undesirable situation.”

City councillor Colin Cook, the executive board member for city development, said: “We are well served for the high end of the market and clearly we need some of the cheaper accommodation.

“We do want hotel rooms but clearly we want them in the right places. It looks from what the officers are saying that this is not the right place for them.”

Four Pillars Hotels did not comment.