A multi-million pound housing development is planned for the site of the old Royal Mail sorting office near Oxford rail station.

Royal Mail and Christ Church, who asked £4m for the prime 1.76 acre site between Hollybush Row and Becket Street, have sold it for a disclosed to an unnamed housebuilder. The sale price has not been disclosed.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said building work is planned to start in January 1999.

Royal Mail left the building earlier this year and moved the sorting office to a new multi-million pound, purpose-built centre at the Oxford Business Park in Cowley.

Oxford City Council is in discussion with the developer over the amount and type of housing to be constructed on the sensitive city centre site, which is next door to the medieval church of St Thomas a Becket. The site is not earmarked for any particular type of development under the city's Local Plan, but planners want some social housing included in the design.

John Kitto, of agents Styles and Whitlock, said: "I can say that it will be a mix of flats and houses and I think the requirement to provide social housing will be met by a payment to allow more social housing off-site."

The company buying the site has agreed a conditional contract dependent on getting planning permission.

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