Plans to build new homes at a burned-out riverside mill at Osney have been given the go-ahead by Oxford City Council.

The city has waited almost 50 years to see the derelict four-storey Victorian building restored.

Now it is to be the centrepiece of a development which will see 10 flats and two houses built on the historic site overlooking Osney Lock.

The developers have also agreed to undertake major restoration work at the last surviving part of Osney Abbey, one of the medieval glories of Oxford, which is on English Heritage's "at risk" register.

Part of the Osney Mill building, destroyed in a fire in the mid-1940s, will have to be demolished because of its poor condition. But the side of the imposing brick building overlooking the river will be preserved.

Two of the flats will also be set aside for key workers, with affordable rents.

With final planning approval subject to legal agreements, residents are bitterly disappointed that the plans include no provision for a new pedestrian and cycle route into Oxford from Osney.

They had wanted to see a footbridge created at Osney Lock to offer walkers and cyclists a safer alternative to using Botley Road.

Jericho and Osney city councillor, Susanna Pressel, said; "We have not given up. We're hoping to secure this through a compulsory purchase order if the landowners continue to hold out.

"Officers have been asked to come back with options on how we should best proceed to get a pedestrian foot- bridge."

One of the conditions of the planning approval is that there should be public access to the abbey building on a set number of days each year.

Bill Munsey, 70, of Osney Mill House, owns the site, and plans to use his family-run company, WH Munsey Developments, to develop it.

Nik Lyzba, a planning consultant acting for the company, said work was unlikely to begin before the middle of next year, with English Heritage to be closely involved in the restoration of the abbey.