CONSERVATIONISTS are renewing their fight to save Victorian buildings in Oxford which look set to be turned into shops and student accommodation.

Developers Shirehall Properties won planning permission last year for a £15m development on the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street.

The company now wants to increase the number of student bedrooms from 35 to 41, which will mean a new planning application.

This will give Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society another chance to oppose the scheme at a time when the city council is set to move to a system of two planning committees taking decisions, instead of area committees .

The society is preparing to submit a lengthy list of objections to the scheme. Members are unhappy about the six shop fronts, a service tower and the demolition of several Victorian buildings.

The developers had originally proposed demolishing a landmark building at the junction, famous for its Lumley’s Tea advertisement on the frontage, which dates from the 1870s, when George Lumley ran a grocer’s shop there.

After protests Shirehall submitted a new design, which it said would retain the facade.

Huw Mellor, of Kemp & Kemp, the planning consultant for the developer, said the new application only proposed small changes.

He said: “In terms of what people will be able to see, it will be difficult to spot any difference.

“The changes involve the internal layout, to enable us increase the number of student rooms by six.

“It will mean a more efficient use of the site and make the buildings more viable.”

He said retaining the front of the Lumley’s Tea building had added to the cost of the project.

Mr Mellor said: “We had hoped we could have avoided making another application. But the council has taken the view that it is a significant enough difference to warrant another planning application.”

David Clark, of Walton Street, a member of the OAHS’s listed building sub-committee, said: “The area committees are soon to go. It will be interesting to see, with a new group of people looking at it, whether they take a different view.”