NEW plans for student accommodation in Headington have been welcomed.

The London Road site has been the subject of planning battles, with Dorset House, a large Victorian property, already demolished.

The site was acquired by Berkeley Homes which has now submitted plans for three and four storey buildings to accommodate 316 Oxford Brookes students.

Tony Joyce, chairman of the co-ordinating committee of Headington Residents’ Associations, said: “I welcome the fact that there is now an application for this site, which has been boarded up for too long and it could now provide much needed accommodation for Brookes students.

“There were many shortcomings in the earlier application, which resulted in its refusal, and Berkeley Homes have clearly tried to address them.”

Mr Joyce said he welcomed the fact that the scheme had a single access to the site on to London Road, adding: “Everyone will be pleased that the house on the corner of Latimer Road is to be retained.

“It is a significant landmark as people go up and down London Road.”

Andrew Saunders-Davies, chairman of Berkeley Homes (Oxford and Chilterns) said: “The development is made up of a number of buildings set around a landscaped central area which retains and respects the mature trees.

“The development will take approximately 12 months to complete and will be ready for Oxford Brookes students in the September 2012 academic year. We are holding an exhibition of the plans on December 15 at the main Gypsy Lane Campus of Oxford Brookes University from 4pm to 8pm.”

A surviving building at 42 London Road is to be incorporated into the scheme.

Residents’ groups have protested in recent months that communities in Headington and East Oxford are being overwhelmed by students, claiming that the numbers in multi-occupied houses were adding to the city’s chronic housing shortages.

There have also been complaints about disruption and noise at night.

Berkeley Homes says that the accommodation for second and third year students and post graduates, will see more students taken out of the private rental sector into purpose-built accommodation.

The company says the site’s location, close to the university’s main Headington campus, would also minimise the possibilities of disruption for residents.