Councillors have endorsed a controversial proposed site for 100 new homes on the edge of Eynsham.

West Oxfordshire District Council's development control committee has voted to recommend that the site, between the eastern edge of the town and the B4449, should stay in the Local Plan, which maps out development in the district until 2011.

The area was included in the plan last year, on the advice of a Government planning inspector, after residents in Woodstock campaigned for smaller housing developments in both towns, rather than one large development in Woodstock.

But 123 people, mostly residents of homes adjacent to the land, wrote to the council to object to the inclusion of the site, known as Eynsham East, in the plan.

Alan Minto, who lives in nearby Orchard Close, said: "The most annoying thing about this is they can ignore the conservation area.

"If I went in and said 'I want to build a brick shed in my garden' they would be down on me like a ton of bricks. There's no-one that wants this except the council."

Senior council planning officer Tina Rowley told the committee: "We all accept that if new housing is built on the east of Eynsham, it will change the character of that area. It doesn't necessarily mean that change is bad and will adversely affect the conservation area."

She also said that, if not included in the 2011 plan, the site was likely to be included in the subsequent Local Plan.

Eynsham councillor David Rossiter proposed holding another inquiry into whether the site should be included, but the proposal backed by all five Liberal Democrat councillors present was defeated.

Mr Rossiter argued that the situation had changed since last year.

Planning permission for 40 affordable homes, in Chilbridge Road, had since been granted, and the county council had revealed that the B4449, which would provide access to the Eynsham East site, had one of the 20 worst accident records in the district.

The committee voted to recom- mend to the council's cabinet that the Eynsham East site should stay in the 2011 Local Plan.

The cabinet will debate the issue at its meeting on Wednesday, and a final decision will be made at the full council meeting a week later.