PLAYING fields and homes for the elderly head a confidential list of county council owned Oxford sites that could be made available for housing.

The list includes all the council's main offices - County Hall, Speedwell House and Macclesfield House - which could make way for 300 new homes.

And it also puts forward Cowley Marsh playing fields and Northway playing fields in Marston, along with a school for children with special needs and a greenfield site at Grandpont.

With a major consultation now under way on where new homes should be built in the city, green campaigners say that 14 key sites being looked at have been deliberately kept secret.

The CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) has had to use the Freedom of Information Act to get Oxford City Council to release the list of potential development sites that it asked Oxfordshire County Council to draw up.

CPRE spokesman Andy Boddington said the list made a nonsense of a consultation exercise to find where the public thinks new homes should go.

He said: "The decision by the city council to keep confidential 14 of the 33 sites it has put out for consultation is shocking. How can people comment on sites that have been kept secret?"

The list includes four county council-owned homes for the elderly: Townsend House, Barton; Iffley House, Iffley; Marston Court; and Longlands, Blackbird Leys. It is estimated the sites could provide about 100 new homes.

County Hall estimates that Cowley Marsh playing fields, a protected sports facility partly sited on an undeveloped flood plain, has capacity for an estimated 118 dwellings. The Northway playing field, leased to the city council until 2011, is said to have room for 90.

Grandpont, another protected open space with sports facilities, also appears problematic. The report says: "Much of the site is in the floodplain, so only the area outside floodplain is considered."

Ormerod Special School, in Waynflete Road, Headington, which includes sports grounds on the western side of the site, is among the largest sites on the list. The school is to close in August.

Other sites on the list are: the Harlow Centre, a former school site in Marston (100 homes), Shotover View offices, in Crowford View (31 homes); and a maintenance depot on Sandford Road (ten homes).

The city's council's chief planning officer, Michael Crofton Briggs, pictured, said the city had asked County Hall to come up with a list of possible development sites to assist its long-term planning.

He said the county had asked for the sites to remain confidential. "It seemed an appropriate request," he added. "We did not want people to put two and two together and make 79. It does not mean that there should be a presumption that all these sites should be developed."

Peter Taylor, asset review officer for Oxfordshire County Council, said the sites were submitted confidentially to avoid causing any "unnecessary concern or misunderstanding to those using the buildings".

He said: "To assist the city council with its housing strategy over the next 20 years, as part of its local development framework, the county council has identified a number of its sites that could be suitable for housing development. No decisions have been taken.

"The county council is acting prudently to ensure that sites with future potential are given consideration; they are not proposals for sale or redevelopment. It is very difficult to predict how circumstances may change over the next 20 years, so there is a strong element of having all bases covered about this situation."

But Mr Boddington, for the CPRE, said: "Some 177 acres of Oxford's green fields could be lost by 2026. That's the area of around 140 football pitches or two-and-a-half times the size of Oxford's University Parks.

"What the city is failing to do is to look at the green space in the city as a whole. Instead it is aiming to gnaw away at green fields, allotments and playing fields until there are only minor protected areas left."

Roger Davis, of the Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association, said: "Both Cowley Marsh and Northway playing fields are well used sites. They also cover large areas, so perhaps some land could be developed without losing all the green space.

"We have to recognise that some housing development has to take place. But we are against trade-offs where accessible green areas are traded for hard multi-use games areas operating on a pay-to-use basis."

County Hall and the other offices would be vacated if the county council goes ahead with plans to move into new offices built as part of the multi-million redevelopment of Oxford's West End.

Meanwhile, the consultation on the Oxford Core Strategy document has already sparked anger in Marston, with residents shaken by news that more than 20 acres of land between Summertown and Marston has been earmarked for housing.