A student invasion is threatening to overwhelm an area of Oxford, residents claim.

People in Headington say their neighbourhood is being ruined by increasing numbers of students from Oxford Brookes University.

They claim undergraduates are being crammed into once tidy family homes - and students' cars are clogging up once quiet streets. At a meeting of the city's planning committee, two separate groups of Headington residents protested at plans for student accommodation near their homes. Tony Joyce, of the Headington Residents Association, spoke out against plans for a 120-room hall of residence on the site of Cowley Barracks.

The site is next to a second Brookes University development and will see about 600 students move into the area. Oxford City Council is selling the site so it can build social housing elsewhere. Mr Joyce said: "I have had reports about crowded buses and we all know how bad traffic is in Headington in the rush hour. We are looking at something like 600 students on this one site. I wonder what this will contribute to the traffic situation?

City planners sympathised with residents - but gave both proposals the go-ahead. Chairman Maureen Christian said a working party would look into the problem of students housing. She said: "I cannot help noticing the number of normal family houses that are let to students. It takes up a lot of our housing stock."

Story date: Thursday 15 April

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