OXFORD City Council has made a U-turn over plans for a £1.2m pavilion after Headington Quarry residents complained having a car park would be dangerous for children.

The city council are still planning to demolish the current pavilion in Margaret Road and build a better one its place with changing rooms, toilets and store rooms, along with a community space and kitchen.

The latest plans for the site were re-vamped following a public consultation in March and April 2015 and a recent campaign against the car park for six vehicles.

City councillor Mark Lygo, member for leisure, sport and events, said the decision to remove the car park from the plans had been made after listening to residents' views.

He said: "This £1.2m investment is a direct response to requests from local people to improve changing facilities at the Quarry Recreation Ground, and its design has been informed by a full consultation with Quarry Rovers FC and the local community.

"Six parking spaces were originally part of the scheme – on the site of an existing car park – but, following the consultation, these spaces have now been removed.

"This decision was made after speaking to local residents and ward members over the past week, when it became clear the car park wasn't wanted."

The council's announcement last night came after Oxfordshire County Council ward member for the area Roz Smith raised concerns over how the car park would affect the safety of children.

She said: "I do not think the installation of a car park is a very good idea in terms of safety because it backs onto a main road and children and cars just do not mix.

"It's been 13 years since we first started campaigning for a new pavilion in Headington Quarry and although these plans were better than the last, they were not super duper."

Headington Quarry Football Club is currently the main user of the site and chairman Neil McCrae also said that while he welcomed the decision to upgrade facilities at the ground, the latest plans were insufficient.

Mr McCrae echoed councillor Smith's views on parking and said bosses behind the new pavilion should be focusing on improving changing facilities, altering the common room and increasing storage.

He said: "We believe this once-in-a-generation opportunity for the community called for some more creative thinking.

"We felt the plans did not address a number of key concerns raised during the consultation and these matters needed to be resolved to deliver the vision that many people in the area had for this project.

"While we appreciate this may incur additional planning costs we feel this could have been avoided if the consultation responses had been addressed correctly and circulated before submission to planning."

The city council's planning department hopes to make a decision on the planning application in the coming weeks.