CAMPAIGNERS against plans to build 1,000 houses at Bodicote/Bankside could use the Human Rights Act to stop the development.

The move could be the final throw of the dice for protesters who have fought against the proposals since they were first announced six years ago.

It follows a meeting in February at which Cherwell District Council's north area planning committee approved an application by house builders JJ Gallagher to build 1,070 homes on greenfield land south of Banbury and east of Bodicote.

Last month, the office of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced it would not "call in" the application, and that a public inquiry on the issue would not take place.

Bob Madge, chairman of the Cherwell Heights Action Group, has now written to the Local Government Office for the South-East.

The letter said: "In the absence of a 'call-in' by Mr Prescott, Cherwell Council becomes the sole arbiter of the 55,000 objections to the plan.

"This is in direct contravention of section 6.1 of the Human Rights Act, which states that a person may not be a judge in his own cause."

Mr Madge also claimed that more than 1,000 objections to the development had been lost, and accused the council of maladministration.

He said: "A number of councillors on the planning committee stated publicly that they voted reluctantly in favour of the plan. These councillors may well have voted against if they had been aware of the arguments in the 'lost' objections. Surely, the losing of them was unfair to those who made them."

Mr Madge said an LGO leaflet stated that maladminstration occurred if a council made a mistake.

He said: "The loss of these complaints is a thousand mistakes."

Mr Madge argued: "We have recently discovered a history of documents being lost or delayed in the process of public consultation. For example, a letter from this group was hand-delivered to the council at 11.30am on the last day of a consultation which closed at 4.30pm.

"That letter, containing some 40 points, was not passed to the officer preparing the report until the following week, at which point the report was closed. This also means that decisions were made without due consideration of relevant information."

George Reynolds, the council's executive member for development, said: "The council will defend whatever action it has to defend."