CITY council leaders in Oxford will continue a 16-year battle to build 4,000 homes south of Grenoble Road if a neighbouring local authority fails to include the site in its development plan.

South Oxfordshire District Council is currently reviewing which sites should be included in the housing plan going forward until 2031, and SODC leader John Cotton said there could be an announcement as early as next month.

Oxford City Council wants to build homes on the land, in a scheme with Magdalen College and Thames Water.

But the site is in the Green Belt and within South Oxfordshire District Council boundaries and to date SODC has not allowed the development to be built.

Mr Cotton said the future of the Grenoble Road site, along with hundreds of other sites across South Oxfordshire, would be revealed following the conclusion of the council’s Local Plan consultation.

He added: “By about March we expect to be ready with evidence to support our case going to the Local Plan.

“We have had submissions from many landowners keen to help us to achieve our ambitious housing targets for the next 20 years.

“We are giving them all careful consideration and expect to be able to make an announcement about the sites, possibly as early as March.”

City council leader Bob Price said if SODC failed to include the Grenoble Road site in its Local Plan it would contest the decision at the planning inquiry. He added: “We will appear at the inquiry to argue for it to be included.

“The Regional Plan of 2006 allocated the site as a specific development area for housing and we still think the arguments that convinced the Regional Plan inspector still apply.

“We have clearly set out with Magdalen College an aspiration for the development of the area and it is a very sustainable place to meet the housing offer of the city, which is under huge pressure for housing .”

The city council wants to build about 4,000 homes on the land close to the Kassam Stadium but in the past Mr Price has said that if half that amount could be built it would be a positive step.

According to the government-backed Strategic Housing Market Assessment, the city council needs to build 32,000 homes by 2031.

But city council planners have said it can only accommodate 10,000, leaving a shortfall it is asking neighbouring authorities to help with.

In September it emerged that the city council was proposing to spend almost £400,000 on new studies and legal fees to make the case for homes to be built south of Grenoble Road.