HOMEOWNERS living next to Oxford Brookes University’s Gipsy Lane campus claim a £150m redevelopment plan is being rushed through while many neighbours are away on holiday.

City councillors are being recommended to give consent for the university’s plans at a meeting on Tuesday.

The project would create a new campus entrance and public square facing Headington Road.

Its centrepiece student centre building has been bitterly opposed by neighbours, who said it would be too big.

But an officers’ report to next week’s north east area committee meeting and the council’s strategic development control committee meeting on August 26, concluded the scheme’s benefits would outweigh any adverse effects.

Harry Edwards, of the Highfield Residents’ Association, claimed the planning application was being “rushed through” in the summer holiday period.

He said: “We feel this is a critical planning decision for Headington and will have a major impact on the wider community for decades. To take a decision of such importance in the middle of the holiday season, when many local people and councillors will be away, would be highly undemocratic and would undermine confidence in both the area committees and the planning system itself.

“It is essential that councillors in affected areas are involved and given the time to consider the consequences of this bid.”

The association has won the backing of St Clement’s councillor Nuala Young, who has asked for the application to be put back until next month.

Brookes’ deputy vice-chancellor Rex Knight said: “This is a significant planning application for the future of Oxford Brookes and we’re encouraged by the recommendations outlined in the report.”

The report said the size of the student centre building would ”impact on neighbouring residential properties”, but said large buildings had existed on the site for 50 years.

It concluded: “There can be little doubt that much of the teaching and social accommodation available to Brookes falls well short of the standards required of a major long-standing academic institution of national and international reputation, and which is also a major local employer.

“The current proposals aim to redress these deficiencies in line with the university’s masterplan.”

Susan Lake, of the Headington Hill Residents’ Group, whose home backs on to the campus, said: “City planners have sprung a silly-season fast report on us.

“It recommends acceptance in terms as mediocre and uncritical as the gross building itself.”