Homes refused permission at Jack Straw's Lane, Oxford

The eight semi-detached homes, four three-bedroom houses and four four-bedroom houses, would have been built where a series of empty sheds sit behind Jack Straw's Lane, a residential street in New Marston.

Oxford City Council's east area planning committee refused permission for the homes because its rulebook for housebuilding said the homes had to be 'car-free' because of their location in a Controlled Parking Zone.

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Cantay Estates, the developer, had wanted to press ahead with building each of the homes with a single parking space.

The council also said the developer was not making 'optimum and efficient use of a site' because more homes could be fitted into the land, including affordable homes.

Committee member Nigel Chapman said the houses would be more suited to other areas of the country than Oxford, because of its dire need for homes.

A map of the proposed homes at Jack Straw’s Lane. Picture: Cantay/Oxford City Council

Labour councillor Mr Chapman said: "This is a rather heavy heart story really isn’t it?

"There is a mismatch of expectations going on here between the developer and our policies, which are good policies.

"If this was a development which was being built in a place where land was plentiful with lots of affordable houses then this would have its merits. But that is not Oxford."

And his Liberal Democrat colleague on the committee, Roz Smith, added the proposed homes had 'decent sized gardens for families' but understood Oxford had a need to 'make maximum use of the space we have got'.

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Planning officer Mike Kemp told the committee that council staff had told the developer its plans were unlikely to be approved and had suggested alternatives, including making the development 'car-free' and increasing the number of homes at the site.

No one from Cantay Estates appeared at the meeting to speak on behalf of the plans.

The plot of land, which is behind a wooden gate between two homes on Jack Straw's Lane will remain as a series of empty sheds for now.

In the past, several other attempts have been made to build homes there.