NEW homes could be built on an Oxford site currently used as a popular hand car wash if a plan is successful.

The land on Abingdon Road was formerly the Cold Arbour petrol station.

But now developers want to use it for three one-bedroom flats and six two-bedroom flats with car and bike parking.

The small site measures only 0.068 hectares and sits next to housing and the Tesco Express supermarket. That is at the junction of Abingdon Road and Weirs Lane. It was formerly used as the Fox and Hounds pub before work to renovate in 2013.

Developers state in planning documents: “It is considered that the proposed development would be appropriate for the site in its context and would be a stylish architectural complement to the area without detracting from the character of the area.”

The site would include 10 off-street car parking spaces, the application states.

It was revealed in August that the owners of the Wash and Go car wash had lodged plans to move into an industrial unit in Peterley Road in Cowley.

And last year, the city council unsuccessfully tried to prosecute a man who formerly had control over the land.

Businessman James Pollitt walked free from Oxford Crown Court after the council sought to prosecute him over what officers claimed was a breach of a notice to close the car wash in October 2014.

Mr Pollitt , who is better known as Ronnie, argued successfully that he had sold on his control of the car wash and so could not be held responsible for the breach.

The city council spent more than £15,000 trying to prosecute Mr Pollitt.

That included two trials. The first cost the taxpayer £8,940 and the second cost £4,860. Another aborted hearing cost £1,680, so the authority spent £15,840 trying to prosecute him.

In June, an unpopular project to build flats behind the car wash and Tesco Express was rejected.

City council officers had recommended that because they said the area needed more family housing and because the building was too big and out of keeping with the character of the area.

The county council said it worried about ‘inadequate’ access and residents living nearby turned out to ask for the plan to be rejected at a planning committee.

The most recent proposal can be viewed online by searching for 18/02774/OUT on oxford.gov.uk