PLANS for student accommodation close to a historic cemetery have been put forward by an Oxford University college.

The development, with 349 study rooms and facilities including a refectory and amphitheatre with surrounding courtyard gardens, is proposed by Merton College and developer McClaren Property.

The accommodation block, off Manor Place, is close to the disused Holywell Cemetery.

According to the planning application submitted to Oxford City Council, there has been extensive consultation with the planning authority, the Oxford Design Review Panel and other interested parties, including neighbours, as well as feedback from a public exhibition.

But Peter Jay, from Woodstock, a former British ambassador to the United States, claimed there had been no consultation with the vicar who looks after the cemetery, or relatives whose loved ones are commemorated there.

He said: “As far as I can discover there has been no consultation with representatives of the Holywell Cemetery, which though “closed” to new burials, is far from closed to the many of us whose family members are commemorated there.

“The curator of the cemetery, Canon Brian Mountford, tells me he has not been consulted at all.

“The principle of student accommodation is of course legitimate, but greater sensitivity is required in the massing of buildings and cycle sheds close to and overshadowing the cemetery.

“The historic wall between the site and the cemetery requires special protection and perhaps reinforcement, as many memorials are affixed to the cemetery side of it, including those of my ancestors.

“The developers may have sent a letter to the Friends of Holywell Cemetery, but they have not contacted me or Canon Mountford.”

Mr Jay said his great-grandfather, Prof Sir Edward Poulton, was commemorated at the cemetery, along with the professor’s wife Emily Poulton.

Their son, Ronald Poulton Palmer, was killed in Flanders, at Ploegsteert, Belgium, in May 1915.

At the time he was the renowned captain of the England Rugby XV.

A lieutenant in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, Mr Poulton Palmer attended the Dragon School and Balliol College and was called up to the Western Front in 1915.

He died aged 25 and is remembered at the cemetery by a wooden cross, brought from his grave in Flanders.

The cemetery, near Magdalen Deer Park, includes the remains of numerous Oxford dons, and Kenneth Grahame, the author of children’s favourite The Wind in the Willows.

McLaren Property said it has consulted groups including Friends of Holywell Cemetery, Oxford Civic Society, Oxford Preservation Trust, and the Kenneth Grahame Society.

McLaren Property spokesman Paul Erskine said the company would be happy to discuss the plans with Mr Jay.

Merton estates bursar John Gloag said: “As Fellows of Merton College we have a responsibility to ensure that any development that takes place leaves a positive legacy for Merton, the university and the city as a whole.”