A disused Oxfordshire quarry is being eyed-up as the site for one of the first eco-towns in the UK.

Developer Kilbride Properties has drawn up radical plans for a 5,000-home, self-sustained community at Shipton Quarry, north of Kidlington, to help ease Oxford's chronic housing crisis.

Last night, the scheme was released exclusively to the Oxford Mail. It shows schools, shops, sports facilities, businesses, a new railway station, a park-and-ride site, marina and nature reserve transforming the former cement works between Woodstock and Bicester into a thriving community.

The first houses could be built within four years and would be made of eco-friendly materials aimed at reducing homeowners' carbon footprints.

Eco-towns, or 'Brown's towns' as they have been dubbed, are the brainchild of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and aim to balance increased housebuilding with the needs of the environment.

Today, a top-level Government report was due to recommend that Oxfordshire finds room for 56,640 houses over the next two decades - 20 per cent more than first thought.

Homes and businesses would be warmed and powered by green technology like solar panels.

Improvements would be made to junctions of the nearby A4260 and A4095 and a new railway station would mean a 10-minute journey into Oxford.

Colin Banyard, managing director of Kilbride Properties, said: "This plan brings the quarry back into productive use, creates jobs, restores the landscape and reopens the rail sidings.

"The aim would be to promote the development of the site in close dialogue with local communities and other interested parties.

"This would eventually lead to the submission of a comprehensive scheme based upon a detailed masterplan, but only once full public consultation had taken place."

In 2005, more than half the 3,000 people who replied to a County Hall questionnaire about where homes should be built said they wanted them around Oxford - and 300 singled out Shipton Quarry.

Mervyn Dobson, of Pegasus Planning Group, part of the Shipton Quarry eco-town project, said: "This could be one of the first in the country, if the authorities want it - but we need an OK-in-principle before we do any more work.

"It's an unrestored brownfield site on the edge of Oxford and right on the Oxford to Birmingham railway line where we could make use of much-improved public transport."

Mr Banyard added: "The contribution the site could make towards the provision of much-needed housing has been played down by those tasked with finding suitable sites.

"We find it difficult to understand why the quarry has not been seen as a very good location for new homes, places of work and services."

Green campaigners gave the Shipton Quarry eco-town plan an 'in-principle' seal of approval last night.

Although the site is technically in the Green Belt, it has been used as a cement works and a car storage site.

Oxford City Council Green group leader Craig Simmons said: "We have always said Shipton Quarry is one of the best sites for a sustainable development because it's right next to an existing railway line and it's only a few minutes into the centre of Oxford.

"Although strictly speaking it is in the Green Belt, the quality of the land is reasonably poor."

Architect David Hammond, who updated his Victorian terrace house in East Street, Osney, Oxford, by installing a heat pump to extract warmth from the River Thames and five solar panels on the roof.

He said: "I would be fully supportive - as long as the development was well-designed."

Developers say the idea behind the Shipton Quarry eco-town is to minimise or halt environmental degradation.

And they reckon the development provided an opportunity to build a community from the ground up.

A multi-million-pound railway terminal, a park-and-ride site and car-pooling clubs would provide sustainable modes of transport.

Bio-fuels and solar power would reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Meanwhile, an eco-park and nesting boxes would encourage ecology and habitat-creation.

There would be an emphasis on local produce with farmers' markets and grocery delivery box schemes.

And children would be free to play in streets where cars would be banned and nearby schools, businesses, shops, parks and leisure facilities would reduce the need for families to travel.