The controversial Oxford City Council strategy of extending Oxford on to Green Belt land has suffered a setback.

The extension of the city is one of the council's key strategies to tackle Oxford's housing shortage, with Green Belt land south of Grenoble Road seen as the most likely site for thousands of new homes.

The policy has put the city into conflict with environmental groups, residents of villages south of the city, Oxfordshire County Council and South Oxfordshire District Council.

But Liberal Democrat and Green members of the city council united to remove reference to "an urban extension" from the Oxford Plan -- a new blueprint setting out the council's development priorities for the next three years.

The parties forced through an amendment at a meeting of the full council, taking out mention of "an urban extension as part of a revised and enduring Green Belt around Oxford", and calling instead for an investigation into "the most sustainable solution to Oxford's housing needs".

The council's Labour leader, Alex Hollingsworth, insisted that the vote had little significance and insisted that urban extension remained a central plank of the council's planning policy and formed part of the authority's key submission to the South East England Regional Assembly on the city's future development needs.

Liberal Democrat group leader John Goddard said the amendment did not rule out an urban extension, but was designed to ensure that there was evidence that such an extension was the best way of meeting Oxford's housing needs.