Residents who failed in a High Court bid to stop the building of an Islamic centre in Oxford are facing a £21,000 legal bill.

Work has started to build the new £20m centre on Magdalen College land off Marston Road.

The protesting residents have no objections to the Islamic Centre itself but are opposed to the location. They claim the Centre for Islamic Studies will swallow up a valuable green field site near the banks of the Cherwell.

But in December, a judge refused their application for a judicial review, rejecting their claims that the plan, backed by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, had been unfairly approved after councillors were given misleading advice.

This left campaigners with a bill for their own legal costs and the city council's.

David McQuitty, Dr Mark Huckstep, Olivier Bonnici and Stuart Sharp, claim the council is now trying to punish them for challenging its decision.

Mr McQuitty, 47, a land- scape architect, of Mill Street, Islip, said legal advisers had told them that legal costs usually amounted to a maximum of £7,500 in such cases. He said: "We are contacting councillors to lobby them to help us get these costs reduced.

"At one point, we offered to pay as much as £12,000 and the council's response to this offer was to increase their claim to £21,000.

"We are a group of citizens who care about the city and it is damaging for democracy for the council to make such substantial claims.

"This could deter other residents from having their say over other important planning issues in Oxford."

Mr McQuitty said the majority of the protest team's legal costs had been covered by donations from supporters.

"We have a lot of support but we will have to do a lot of fundraising if the council insists on these costs," he added.

Legal advisers at the city council said they had a duty to claim costs in such cases, otherwise the burden would be passed on to council taxpayers.

David Taylor, director of corporate services, said the fees had been assessed by an independent expert.

He added: "We consider that these figures are a fair and accurate reflection of the costs we have incurred in this case. If the other party is unhappy with these costs, there is a formal legal process which they can follow.

"If we did not pursue our costs, the burden would fall on all our council tax payers."

If the campaigners decide to contest the legal bill in court, they have to notify the High Court by today, but an out-of-court settlement could take place after that date.

Last July, the council was split 22-22 on plans for the centre, but Lord Mayor Maureen Christian used her casting vote in favour of the scheme.

She said she later received a number of "nasty" letters criticising her for doing this.