Developers have still to convince planners about a contentious scheme for new housing in the centre of Woodstock.

Berkeley Homes (Oxford and Chiltern) want to build 36 homes, along with a new town health centre, on the former Youngs Garage site, in Oxford Street.

But West Oxfordshire District Council’s uplands planning sub-committee decided this week further negotiations were needed over two main sticking points on the development.

One is the reluctance of local GPs and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust to back the health centre part of the scheme, and the other is the amount of affordable homes that could be built — the council wants 50 per cent, while Berkeley Homes is offering 20 per cent.

More than 70 letters of objection to the development have been received by the planning department.

But local support for the retention of the site’s former Great Western railway station as a building of special architectural interest has been turned down by the Secretary of State for the Environment.

A decision has been put back until the next meeting of the sub-committee in late February.