A scheme that would see police, fire and ambulance headquarters all moving out of central Oxford is expected to be submitted to the Government early next year.

Oxford City Council says it has been encouraged by the response of local 999 services to the idea of creating a new emergency services base at Pear Tree.

The city and county councils believe the move could reduce response times, avoiding emergency call-outs being caught up in Oxford’s traffic. And it would also hold out the prospect of freeing up valuable sites at St Aldate’s and Rewley Road that could be incorporated into the West End redevelopment.

The emergency base would form part of a multi-million-pound scheme to create a ‘northern gateway’ to Oxford at Pear Tree, largely on land owned by Oxford colleges.

An updated map of the northern gateway site, about a third larger than originally envisaged, was presented to the city council’s north area committee, which backed the scheme’s objectives. Land within the northern gateway area action plan now includes Pear Tree Park-and-Ride and the Holiday Inn/Travelodge complex, which the city says offers “scope for modernisation”.

More controversially, the site now also includes Goose Green, an area of common land adjacent to Wolvercote Green.

And local councillors and the Wolvercote Commoners’ Comm-ittee — an amenity group from the parish — are demanding that the historic green space on the edge of Wolvercote be removed from the plan.

The gateway site, bisected by the A44, is mainly low-grade farmland owned by St John’s College and Worcester College, with the service area now added owned by Merton College.

A Northern Gateway Consortium has been created, with the city council hoping construction could begin by 2012.

The consortium is proposing to build a business park, with the site expected to be attractive to research companies linked to universities and local hospitals.

But the city council’s north area committee chairman, Alan Armitage, pictured, said the development should also include a significant amount of housing, which he believed could be built south of the park-and-ride.

He also warned that the development must not add to the traffic congestion north of the city and said the idea of building a tunnel under the Wolvercote roundabout, for traffic travelling from the A40 to the M40, should again be investigated.

Mr Armitage added: “We have told officers that we want to see Goose Green taken out. The idea of it being part of an area for commercial development is unacceptable.”

Peter Adams, chairman of the Wolvercote Commoners’ Committee, said: “When we discovered that Goose Green had been included, at first we just assumed that it had been a mistake.

“We will oppose the whole scheme. We cannot see how an industrial estate and office blocks will enhance the journey into Oxford.”

But the gateway scheme has been boosted by the response from police and the fire service.

Oxfordshire’s chief fire officer, John Parry, said: “I think it would enhance our overall fire cover.

“But we would still need to retain an alternative presence in the city near or around Rewley Road.”

Thames Valley Police said the force had been involved in discussions with the city council since 2007 about moving its headquarters from St Aldate’s to Pear Tree.

But a spokesman said more detailed information about the scheme would be needed before there could be any commitment to relocate.