NEIGHBOURS have claimed a decision to grant planning permission for six homes will ‘rip the heart’ out of an Oxford conservation area.

Oxford City Council’s strategic development control committee (SDCC) voted to allow three houses and three flats to be built in Oxford Road, Littlemore.

The council’s south east area committee had previously turned down the scheme. But the proposal was called in to the control committee because similar plans from the same developer had been granted permission by a Government inspector on appeal in November 2007.

Karin Cheetham, 37, whose home backs on to the site, said: “I am devastated because it is going to really rip out the heart of Littlemore’s conservation area.

“My neighbours will all feel disappointed — a lot of people worked hard to get this decision refused.”

The SDCC was told that London-based Legal Estates already had planning permission for a building of similar size which would contain six flats and two less parking spaces than the new scheme.

Planning officer Andrew Lewis said he considered the new proposal much more in keeping with the area than the earlier plan.

But Miss Cheetham asked the committee: “Do we really need to desecrate this small breathing space in the conservation area for six more homes?”

She also claimed the proposed building would be overbearing and would cause parking problems.

Vim Rodrigo, from Rose Hill, urged the committee to grant planning permission to save tax-payers an enormous legal bill, should Legal Estates appeal and win.

Luke Winham, a director of the company, told the meeting the proposal would not impact on seven trees with tree preservation orders in the area.

When quizzed about when construction could begin, he said: “I think we have to sit and wait for the market to come back a bit before we can start construction.”

A motion to grant planning permission was carried by the committee by five votes to four.

Sue Aldridge, from Dudgeon Drive, one of 11 neighbours opposing the scheme who attended the meeting, said: “I am absolutely gutted. The community will be absolutely enraged.”

Mr Winham said he was pleased with the commitee’s decision.

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk