AN OXFORD businessman who is locked in a planning dispute with the city council has accused officers of conducting a "witch-hunt".

Orde Levinson, who owns the Aqua Vitae restaurant at Folly Bridge, Abingdon Road, said the council was encouraging people to spy on him.

Mr Levinson is seeking a judicial review against the council after it served him with an enforcement notice, banning diners from using a pontoon moored outside the restaurant.

He has also been told to remove lighting and signs, for which the restaurant does not have planning permission. Last month the council wrote to residents, encouraging them to gather evidence against Mr Levinson.

The letter from enforcement officer Celia Diaz told householders that no action could be taken against Mr Levinson's use of the pontoon, without "justification".

It said: "As the council is unable to mount a continual surveillance, we would have to rely on evidence from local residents of annoyance." Mr Levinson said: "It's like a witch-hunt. They are stirring up ill feeling.

"I'm thinking about taking action against them under the Human Rights Act, to prevent them taking action against me.

"It has got to the stage where they are interfering with my privacy and right to peace and enjoyment."

A planning appeal into the council's refusal to allow the large red restaurant signs on Abingdon Road will take place later this month.

But at a meeting of the city council's Central, South and West Area Committee meeting at Oxford Town Hall, on Tuesday, October 8, he urged councillors to wait for the outcome of the judicial review before proceeding.

He said: "I urge the committee to wait for the outcome of the courts."

City council planning officer Murray Hancock said: "We have been gathering information to put the council's case together, and that is on-going."

Resident Mervyn Curren, who lives in Shire Lake Close, objected to the restaurant's breach of planning restrictions.

He told Mr Levinson: "All we want to do is be a good neighbour. All we object to is you doing things without permission.

"We would like you to turn your lights off, and take your tables away from the pontoons."