CITY council leaders have agreed plans for a 1,200-home estate at Barton West despite fears about how it will link to existing suburbs.

Oxford City Council backed the estate, which will become the largest since Greater Leys, at a meeting on Monday.

The council said the 36-hectare site on the north side of the A40 will create “a vibrant new community” and the plans will go out to public consultation early next year.

Plans will then be submitted to the Communities Secretary in March followed by a public examination in July.

If approved, building could start in early 2014.

The Labour-run council owns the land at Barton West and will be a development partner. But opposition Liberal Democrats argued buses should be routed through Headington, not Northway, to increase integration.

The new estate would be accessed directly from the ring road via a new signal-controlled junction or roundabout. To stop rat-running, it would be designed so only buses have access into Northway, through a bus gate.

Councillor David Rundle said: “I do not see a bus route from the new section of Barton snaking through Northway as an attractive route.”

Council leader Bob Price said: “The proposed bus link is designed to integrate the estate with the community.”

Labour councillor Colin Cook, executive member for city development, said the council would aim to get as many houses built on the site as possible, with 1,200 the current goal.

Residents, including those opposed to Barton West, protested outside the meeting, angry that many had been barred from speaking.

Campaigner Sietske Boules, chairman of the city branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “There were 16 speakers and only 10 people were allowed to speak because there was agenda overload.

“It was undemocratic.”