The Bodleian Library's plan to create a new entrance for paying visitors will meet fierce opposition from Oxford city council planning committee.

Councillors say they have been taken aback by the University's desire to close off the historic Bodleian Quad.

And the University will be asked to justify its plan to cut a double doorway through the Library's Great Gate, a key part of the scheme to attract more paying visitors. One senior member of the planning committee said it amounted to "desecration."

And committee chairman John Goddard said: "I am going to take a lot of convincing about the need to make a hole in this building."