BICESTER is in urgent need of employment opportunities, a inquiry into plans to build offices on former allotments heard yesterday.

The inquiry, into the refusal by Cherwell District Council to allow 5,000 sq metres of office space to be built on former allotment land at Skimmingdish Lane, Bicester, heard that a better balance between population and jobs was required to reduce out-commuting.

Appealing against the decision made in November last year, Douglas Edwards, representing landowners the Oxford Diocesan Board of Finance, said there was a jobs imbalance in the town.

He said: "There is a pressing need to widen the range of employment opportunities, and the existing demand for high quality offices in Bicester is likely to increase."

He said the site was ideal for the purpose and there would be no adverse impact on the town's conservation area.

Mr Edwards said the site was sustainable in terms of access, and that it had been allocated as development land in the local plan for ten years before 2004.

He said the local plan was now out of date, but a new one had not been adopted and there had not been a change of policy by the council.

He said the site had been closed as allotment land because of a lack of demand and would not re-open - but if a need for plots was established the Diocese could provide alternative land nearby.

He said: "There is little interest in allotments in Bicester or in Launton."

Grahame Keen, representing Cherwell District Council, agreed there was a need to attract new employers to Bicester and admitted there was was a shortage of readily available employment land. But he said there was no justification for developing the former allotment site at the present time.

The appeal, being heard by planning inspector David Rose, was originally scheduled for two days, but because of the number of witnesses and speakers, the inquiry will continue for a third day, at a date to be arranged in January.