HUGE wooden panelled buildings have gone up on a city centre road, marking the start of work on new student flats.

The new student blocks are being built on St Cross Road and Jowett Walk.

They are owned by Balliol College and are part of a large development in the area first submitted for planning permission in 2016.

Construction workers have been spotted walking through the huge, wood panelled structure of the buildings being erected on St Cross Road, opposite the St Cross Building.

After having been approved in 2017, two buildings along St Cross Road were demolished: the Martin Building and the Dellal building.

When the planning application was first submitted, the college said the work was needed partly because a sports pavilion on Masters Field was old and also because it wanted more of its own accommodation for students, as well as new teaching facilities.

A masterplan of its proposals submitted to Oxford City Council in 2016 included a new pavilion with seating for 100 people.

There was also an assembly hall with seating for 200 people, eight accommodation blocks and 285 cycle parking spaces.

Oxford Mail:

An artist's impression of the new buildings at Balliol College's sports ground. Picture: Niall McLaughlin Architects

A statement submitted with the application said: "Balliol College can only provide accommodation for two thirds of its undergraduates. The college would like to house all its undergraduates for their time in Oxford in close proximity to teaching facilities and to modernise and increase its graduate and fellows’ accommodation."

Oxford City Council has been encouraging Oxford University's colleges to build more of its own student accommodation in recent years.

In its local plan, the council has set limits for the number of students who can live outside of college-owned accommodation.

There is also a separate limit for Oxford Brookes University.

Oxford Mail:

Picture: Ed Nix.

The council hopes that by setting this limit private rented accommodation will be freed up for non-students looking for somewhere to live in Oxford.

Other colleges have similar plans in the pipeline.

Pembroke College is redeveloping part of its Geoffrey Arthur Building site along the Thames towpath near Grandpont to make room for more graduate students.

University College recently submitted a planning application for new student blocks at a site on Banbury Road.

And St Peter's College hopes to build new student flats on the site of a former conservative club on New Road, near Oxford's castle mound.

For more about the Balliol development search reference 16/03056/FUL at oxford.gov.uk/planning