PLANS to demolish the Helena Kennedy Centre at Oxford Brookes University’s Headington Campus and replace it with a new larger building have been approved.

Members of Oxford City Council east area planning committee gave the go ahead for the proposals at a meeting on Wednesday evening.

The replacement building will house labs and facilities for courses in mechanical engineering, computer sciences, built environment, architecture, and art, all within a single facility.

The two-storey building would also include a first floor café, along with social spaces and exhibition areas at ground floor level.

At the same meeting councillors also retrospectively approved plans for Oxford United FC’s new training facility in Oxford Road, Horspath.

The committee gave the go ahead o parts of the development with the training building, access and parking already largely complete.

Permission had been granted for the redevelopment of the wider site in 2017 for a community sports use and for use by Oxford United FC.

However slight changes to the original design of the building’s size and external appearance were also retrospectively approved on Wednesday.

The newly approved facilities will replace the club’s existing training base in Roman Way after BMW acquired the land and earmarked the site for a possible future expansion.