THE face of Oxford's trendy Cowley Road looks set to change as more than 100 student flats could be built above one of its busy supermarkets.

Developers want to build three new floors on top of the Tesco Metro to contain 137 new student flats.

Local Developments said the plush apartments would be ‘fitted out to the high standards expected of current trends in student accommodation’.

The block would contain a gym, communal kitchens, a common room, a TV room, work rooms, a laundry and a covered cycle store for 147 bikes.

READ MORE: Oxford Brookes student block plan thrown out

In papers submitted to the city council earlier this month, the developers state: “It has been well documented that purpose-built student accommodation is beneficial to both the needs of the student residents and the local communities in which they are located, by providing for students’ needs more effectively, injecting vibrancy into communities, footfall to local businesses and freeing up local housing.”

They continue: “The accommodation has been carefully designed to meet the needs of both graduate and undergraduate students – with an appropriate balance of self-contained and communal living.”

The city council allows each of Oxford’s universities to have 3,000 students living in private rented accommodation – but both have regularly exceeded that cap.

READ AGAIN: North Oxford residents’ 'indignant' over University College plan

At the last formal count, in 2017/18, 3,174 Oxford University students rented property other than university accommodation.

Another 4,089 Oxford Brookes students were living outside their university’s halls.

Local Developments states it seeks to prevent anti-social behaviour around the site with 24-hour lighting. It says that, and other measures, would ‘create an environment which is safe, inclusive and accessible’.

The city council will seek to decide whether the application gets the go-ahead over the next few months.

Last month, North Oxford residents raised concerns about University College’s plans to build new accommodation on land off Banbury Road.

In June, an Oxford Brookes University plan for its Clive Booth Student Village was rejected. There are 640 bedrooms at the Headington complex, which opened in the 1970s, but OBU wanted a total of 1,077 rooms.