A LAST-minute plea by residents against two proposed Oxford University medical research buildings failed last night as councillors approved the plan.

Oxford City Council’s east area planning committee backed the £57m scheme for the university’s Old Road Campus, by the Churchill Hospital in Headington.

The buildings will house the new Nuffield Department of Medicine and the Kennedy Institute, which is moving from London.

Four existing buildings will be knocked down.

The “overbearing” design of the three-storey buildings and plans for no new carking for the 150 extra staff were key concerns of residents.

The university said none would use a car with about half cycling and the rest divided between bus use and walking, with 114 more cycle spaces added to the site.

But Oxfordshire County Council highway staff said about 45 per cent of the new staff would drive and measures must be taken to deter car use.

The committee said the university must pay for cycling and walking improvements and an eastbound bus shelter on Old Road.

Cash must also be provided for a controlled parking zone (CPZ) of householder permits for the Divinity Road area to deter staff from parking on streets, it said.

Speaking at the meeting, Headington Action Group chairman Patrick Coulter said: “It will have a serious impact on our local environment. It will be overbearing and intrusive.”

Hilary Rollin, who lives opposite the site in Old Road, said: “We are not against scientific research on this site but the value of the research should not be used as an excuse for not organising the site to be as neighbour friendly as possible.”

Liz Brighouse, a Labour Barton and Churchill county councillor, branded the plan “colossal”.

She said: “Just because there aren’t any additional car parking spaces it does not mean that people do not take their cars to the site and do not leave them willy nilly all over the place.”

But Prof William James, pro-vice chancellor for planning and resource allocation at the university, said the development would make Oxford “the foremost centre for medical research and healthcare innovation internationally”.

It would conduct research into diseases like arthritis and dementia.

Committee member David Rundle said the plan risked “significant damage to the residential community” and questioned if another CPZ could see all permit prices rise to pay for enforcement.

Concerns were also raised about flood and drainage risks to nearby Boundary Brook and the Lye Valley site of special scientific interest, though a council officer’s report said there was no risk.