Developers of Oxford's Morrells brewery site spoke of their disappointment after councillors postponed their development plans again.

Beer ceased to be brewed at The Lion Brewery in St Thomas' Street 20 months ago when the Dorchester-based Thomas Hardy brewery took over Morrells ales.

Developer T.H. Kingerlee & Sons originally planned to build 98 new homes on the site, then agreed to reduce it to 79 to keep more buildings within the 15m scheme, including the brewery chimney. Despite their offer to provide some social housing on site, it was not enough to satisfy councillors.

Yesterday's city council planning committee deferred the matter for further discussions with developers.

Afterwards, Kingerlee's managing director Tony Woodward said: "We are very disappointed because we feel we have already made sufficient concessions.

*Plans to build a hotel on Oxford's former prison site which needs 3m worth of grant funding will be discussed by councillors at a second planning meeting tomorrow.