Oxford City Council wants to build an 8,000-home community covering 600 acres of Green Belt land on the edge of the city.

The council is ready to release 250 acres of land it owns to create a settlement that would be as large as Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys combined.

The proposal means the controversial scheme to build 3,500 homes south of Grenoble Road could be more than doubled, with the development stretching from Sandford in the west to Garsington Road in the east.

Until now, the issue of an urban extension of Oxford has focused on a 370-acre site next to Grenoble Road and Oxford Science Park, owned by Magdalen College and Thames Water.

The city council disclosed the full extent of its ambitions in its formal response to Oxfordshire County Council's consultation on where 21,000 new homes should be built in the county.

The area could absorb all 8,000 homes that County Hall says must be built on greenfield land between 2016 and 2026, as part of the South East Plan.

The council's strategy document is expected to be approved by the city council executive on Monday. The council insists that the scheme "will leave 99 per cent of the Oxford Green Belt intact".

The new settlement would avoid thousands of new homes having to be built in Bicester, Didcot and Grove -- the county council's preferred option.

Alex Hollingsworth, the city council's leader, said: "Oxfordshire is in urgent need of more housing. The issue is where should the houses go.

"The most sensible place is where they are most needed and the most sensible place to put new housing is on the edge of Oxford."

The land falls within the South Oxfordshire District Council area.

The district council's chief executive, David Buckle, said: "A cynic might wonder whether this is why Oxford City Council has been promoting this development all along."

Magdalen and Thames Water published details of their scheme only three weeks ago, but Magdalen's bursar, Charles Young, welcomed the city council's decision to press for a larger scheme.

Elizabeth Gillespie, of The Baldons Parish Council, said: "The whole thing is a nightmare.

"It's hard to believe that when the idea was first spoken of we were talking about a few hundred houses. We're at the beginning of a rollercoaster."