PARENTS and staff have lobbied councillors into reconsidering plans for 26 student flats overlooking East Oxford Primary School.

Mums and dads claim the school is being “invaded” by student accommodation, and say the development could put their children at risk.

Now 12 city councillors have backed a call-in of the committee decision to grant planning permission.

A developer wants to demolish the school’s former canteen and build a pair of two-storey buildings housing 26 ensuite study rooms.

The plans will now be heard again by the council’s planning review committee.

The school argues that it is becoming surrounded by student accommodation, and the proposed development’s entrance will be through the staff car park, which is also used by the East Oxford Early Intervention Hub and the Saturday farmers’ market.

Headteacher Susan Widgery described the proposal as “highly inappropriate” and highlighted “serious concern” over safeguarding children in a letter to Oxford City Council last month.

She told the Oxford Mail: “We have concerns about health and safety in general. There is very poor access to the car park anyway, and it seems inappropriate to us that there should be a building of this size there without its own access.”

She said the accommodation blocks would increase the number of people on the site, and the proposed development was too dense for a small piece of land.

She added: “Some of the argument put up in favour of the building, that it will free up local housing for families, do not chime with the experiences of local residents.”

Mum Tracy Myatt, 38, whose six-year-old daughter Chloe goes to the Union Street school, said: “It is too close, and it is invading and taking over the school.

“I’m worried about the security aspect and the traffic it is going to cause.

“I live round students all the time, and there are problems with rubbish and noise, even in the day time.

“My child is at that school and the are going to be coming and going right beside her.

“I worry about the language she is going to pick up.”

Parent governor Halima Banaras, whose children Khadija and Fatimah go to the school, said: “My main worry is the privacy.

“The foundation unit is directly opposite the proposed building, so it is not going to be good for older students walking around near them.”

Iffley Fields city councillor Elise Benjamin, whose daughter goes to the school, said: “A lot of parents were not originally aware of the planning application. Governors did not really expect the planning application to go through.

“There are several issues around it, and access to the development would be across the school car park down narrow lanes.”

She said with more people walking and cycling to the flats, it would make the entrance to the school more dangerous for children, parents and staff.

Developer Crampton Smith Properties and its agent John Philips Planning Consultancy declined to comment.