Old Marston residents have voiced concern over suggestions their village could be a possible target for new housing.

Fears have been raised following the publication of Oxford City Council's Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, SHLAA.

The document forms part of the local authority's core strategy for housing during the next 20 years.

The aim is to shows areas where there is potential to build dwellings.

And, according to the SHLAA, there is the potential to develop 1,050 in the Old Marston area alone.

Land has been pinpointed along Mill Lane, near The Victoria Arms pub, with space for 600 dwellings, with another 450 on the Court Farm allotments.

Charlie Haynes, chairman of Old Marston Parish Council, said: "At this stage we understand that it is only part of the council's core strategy and that it has to provide this information to the Government by law.

"If there is any truth to the rumour it plans to develop here, then we will definitely be fighting it. We just have to wait and see."

David Kyffin, landlord of the Victoria Arms pub, expressed concern at the possibility of any future development of the Mill Lane site.

He said: "We don't want people to think we are being Nimby about this, it's just that a development of that size would rip the heart out of the village.

"The first people knew about this was when we read it in the Oxford Mail the other day.

"There should have been more consultation from the council with local residents and the Preservation Trust who own a lot of that land."

The city council has maintained it has no plans to develop the land.

But Andy Boddington, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, said: "That doesn't mean that they won't in the future. Why include it in the first place if you have no intention of ever developing it?"

Michael Crofton Briggs, head of planning at the city council, said the document only outlined where developers had suggested houses could be built.

"This doesn't mean that houses will be built on this land or that we have approved planning permission," he said.