RESIDENTS have branded a derelict building on Oxford’s Wood Farm estate an “eyesore and complete waste of space”.

Marywood House, a former home for people with learning disabilities in Leiden Road, has been empty since Oxfordshire County Council closed it down in 2003. But despite the council claiming in February last year that it hoped to sell the site for housing, the site remains untouched.

Oxford City Council confirmed it had received no planning applications for the building in the past 12 months.

Pete Bonney, 71, of Nuffield Road, said he had been campaigning “for years” to get the site redeveloped.

He said: “It is getting ridiculous now.

“This place has been completely boarded up for eight years now.

“It’s derelict and needs to be demolished, but nothing ever gets done.

“There is a sign outside that says there is security on site 24-hours a day – who on earth is paying for this?

“It looks like the fire service have even been using it for training purposes, because you very often see engines there.”

He said: “The building is a complete eyesore and a total waste of space.

“Oxford needs more affordable housing and other areas are being redeveloped but, as always, Wood Farm gets completely overlooked.”

Last year the county council said it hoped to sell the site for housing, with some as affordable housing.

But 14 months on, the site remains boarded up and fenced off to the public.

In a letter to the Oxford Mail, Patricia White, of Peat Moors, Headington, said the building was in an “awful state”. She said: “This is a very valuable piece of land, yet it is boarded up after being empty for several years.

“This building and land is getting derelict, it’s disgusting.

“I suggested a while ago that the land be used as a new swimming pool and library.”

An application for outline planning permission for housing development was submitted in May 2003 but rejected by the city council because it did not contain any social housing.

The county council had an appeal dismissed by a planning inspector in May 2005. The same year, the Oxford Local Plan, a city council blueprint for where development should go, said the site could be redeveloped for housing but community and health facilities should go elsewhere on the estate.

In 2006, the Oxford Mail reported that then city councillor Clare Kent was calling for the 21-room building to be turned into social housing.

At the time, the county council planned to sell the building and reinvest the proceeds into social and health care.

No-one was available to comment on the issue at the county council.