A new home may have been found for a disabled man who refused to leave his flat to make way for Oxford's £330m Westgate redevelopment.o Yesterday, multiple sclerosis sufferer Vincent McKeown said Oxford City Council had come up with what could be a suitable alternative place for him.

Mr McKeown lives in a flat in Abbey Place, one of 14 due to be bulldozed following the granting of a compulsory purchase order (CPO).

He can only communicate by blinking, and spoke to the Oxford Mail through his carer Christian Pattison.

Mr Pattison said: "Vincent has been offered another place on Paradise Square and if they adapted it to his requirements then he is happy to move.

"If they pay for his move and adapt it fully to his needs then there is not really a problem as it is only four doors down."

Mr Pattison said there was some wrangling between the developers and the council about whether the house was the council's to offer but negotiations were cont- inuing.

Mr McKeown, who lost a High Court battle for a judicial review of the council's decision to grant planning permission, has not ruled out further legal action but Mr Pattison said it did not appear to be necessary at the moment.

He warned that although the CPO had been granted, the council was bound by human and disabled rights law to find Mr McKeown and all the residents new homes.

Mr Pattison said: "If it (the CPO) hurries up what they are doing in terms of sorting out rehousing that is a good thing, but aside from that it makes no difference at all to their obligations.

"They have to provide housing for him and the other disabled people so it does not change anything in terms of what they have got to do."

"Nobody is against the development, they are just anti the way it has been implemented at the expense of the people who live there."

When Mr McKeown was originally offered a new flat in Albion Place he said it was unsuitable, as it was at the bottom of a hill and located between a homeless shelter and a drugs counselling centre.