The Environment Agency has defended its decision to object to the proposed £300m Westgate Centre redevelopment because of flood fears.

The agency believes the massive project could increase the risk.

And it said developers had not taken account of important new information on the floodplain in drawing up their plans.

Last week, the agency's concerns led Oxford city council's central, south and west area committee to demand that the council's support for the scheme be conditional on the agency withdrawing its objection.

An agency spokesman said: "We want to restrict inappropriate development in the floodplain. Any proposed development should not cause flooding elsewhere and would require a full Flood Risk Assessment (FRA).

"The FRA provided by the developer does not provide enough detail on certain aspects of the scheme and does not take into account the latest available information on the floodplain in the area. As a result, currently we have reiterated our objection to the development."

But the Westgate Partnership expressed confidence that it could satisfy the agency and city councillors about the issue.

Michael Crofton Briggs, the city council chief planning officer, said he was hopeful the problems could be resolved by the time the planning application went to the city's strategic development control committee on October 30.

He said: "The Westgate Partnership prepared their application on the basis of published flooding information from the EA.

"Now the EA says they have more relevant information."

Westgate Partnership group development manager Jane McFarland said: "We believe that mitigation measures can be satisfactorily delivered, and we are awaiting a meeting with the city council and the agency to further explore a range of options."