ANGRY neighbours are fighting back against a fresh attempt to build student flats in East Oxford.

Developers have already been turned down twice by city councillors and once by a Government planning inspector in their bid build a block of student flats in Iffley Road.

Last month, councillors threw out the latest application for 190 Iffley Road – which proposed a building including 27 student flats – after residents convinced them to reject the scheme.

But the application has now been called in by councillor John Tanner to be reviewed by the authority’s strategic development control committee.

Sarah Wild, a member of the Iffley Fields Residents’ Association, said: “By calling in the application it shows a lack of respect for the council and neighbours.

“This is an antisocial development.

“Why, when it has already been refused planning permission twice and once on appeal, has it come back again?”

The plans, put in by 190 Iffley Road Ltd, would see the 90-year-old front facade of the building retained. But a service wing and garden building would be demolished and replaced with a three-storey extension.

On Saturday, local residents gathered outside the building, which was once home to the Bishop of Oxford, to complain about the move to review the application.

More than 100 people have written letters to the council to oppose the plans for the site since it first surfaced three years ago.

Mrs Wild added: “It’s totally unsuitable for students. There’s one kitchen for every 10 rooms, there are no communal areas, so they will be outside in the garden, there are only three household dustbins and it has no laundry facilities.

“There’s also no agreement between the developer and a college, so we don’t even know who would be living in the flats.

“We have nothing against students, but there comes a point where it’s like living in a college campus.”

An application for a five-storey building for 48 students was refused three years ago by members of the city council’s east area committee.

The developer appealed, but a Government planning inspector ruled that the proposed building would affect the privacy of neighbours and had too many rooms.

A scaled-down version of the application was then submitted but this was rejected by councillors last month, despite being recommended for approval by planning officers.

Following Mr Tanner’s intervention, it will now be debated by the strategic development control committee today.

Its meeting at the Town Hall starts at 5pm.

Mr Tanner said the council wanted to see more purpose-built student accommodation, to free up houses in the city for families.

He said: “In planning law, the council has to ask whether it’s reasonable for developers to make this application, not what local people think.

“At the moment it’s an empty derelict site and the plan is a huge improvement.

“The student accommodation will be well run and I’m asking for it to be looked at again.

“This is the type of development which we want to see in Oxford.”