A shadow has been cast over two Green city councillors' hopes of turning their home into a revolutionary solar-powered centre, after fellow councillors rejected the plans for a second time.

Craig Simmons and wife Elise Benjamin had been hoping to promote the use of solar power by building a glass conservatory on the front of their Victorian terraced home in Magdalen Road, East Oxford.

But following a heated debate on Wednesday, councillors voted five to one against the plans. Planning officers had recommended refusal.

Ms Benjamin is vice-chairman of the committee and sat out of the meeting while the item was discussed -- but could not hide her disappointment when she learned of the outcome.

She told the Oxford Mail: "I'm clearly very frustrated by this. We want our home to be a model of what you can do to a Victorian house to make it more environmentally-friendly.

"With many Victorian houses the only way to do that is by knocking the property down and starting all over again, but we don't want to do that as we could renovate it with the glass conservatory, which is obviously a much better option."

The house already has hot water provided by solar power and the glass conservatory was the next step.

A Solar Cities Initiative conference is due to take place in Oxford next year and the couple had hoped their home could be a flagship house for the event.

Ms Benjamin added that she found the decision particularly frustrating because Magdalen Road was such a diverse, varied street with all kinds of buildings in it.

But council planning officer Felicity Byrne told the meeting her department had concerns about the impact the plans would have on Magdalen Road's street scene, saying: "Any energy efficiency benefits are outweighed by other planning con- siderations."

She added: "The overall size and height of the conservatory would be out of keeping with the street scene."

Paul Sargeant spoke in favour of the plans, pleading with other councillors to be radical.

But Clark Brundin said: "I am happy to think radically, but it is possible to be experimental in areas other than this one.

"I am encouraged by this but I regret that, on planning grounds, I don't think it's the right place to be doing something like this."

Mr Simmons was not at the meeting.

Ms Benjamin said she and her husband would look at all their options before deciding what to do next.