A CONCERNED resident has claimed it would be ‘a farce’ if more student housing is built on the former Travis Perkins site in East Oxford.

Chris Honeywell, of Ablett Close, was speaking out after development company Harepath LLP unveiled its plans for the land off Chapel Street, which is already earmarked for office space.

He said: “If they built student housing there it would make a farce of any kind of planning policy.

“I have not got any objections to student accommodation and I have no experience of any problems with students.

“It is the size of the A2Dominion building within yards of my back fence.”

Last year Oxford City Council gave A2Dominion Ltd planning permission for a block of 190 student flats on the site.

Now Harepath has come forward with proposals for nearly 60 student bedrooms for another part of the former depot.

The plot they hope to build on – which fronts on to Collins Street – was originally earmarked for office space when WE Black applied successfully for planning permission in 2009.

City councillor Elise Benjamin has given up her place on the planning committee so she can speak out against the scheme.

She said: “We argued very strongly that we need to retain some employment on the site and won that quite clearly.

“We don’t even know if the existing student housing which will be built there will be occupied after St Hilda’s pulled out.

“All my colleagues are very experienced so I don’t have any worries about someone substituting for me.

“Last year there was no co-ordinated effort to get residents together. I have already started working with some of them.”

No decision has been made on who will substitute for her but city councillors from the east of Oxford tend to sit on the east area planning committee.

WE Black had originally signed a deal with St Hilda’s College for the student flats but the establishment later withdrew from the agreement and the site was sold to A2Dominion.

Travis Perkins has moved from the site to a new base in Sandy Lane West and the former builders yard is now unoccupied.

Chris Ackley of Harepath said: “This is a sensible development, which the offices are not, and we have stayed within the same sized building which had already been approved.”