A UNIVERSITY campus definition was among the final issues debated at the examination of Oxford's new housing plan.

After three weeks of public hearings, the official government scrutiny of Oxford City Council's Local Plan 2036 came to an end yesterday.

One of its most controversial policies has been the council’s target to build 1,400 new 'affordable' homes to meet the city’s social housing needs.

At a ‘wash-up’ session to close the proceedings, Secretary of State-appointed planning inspector Jonathan Bore summarised public enquiries which started on December 3.

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Mr Bore said: “We have obviously discussed some great issues here.

“I will be saying things here, however, that some will agree with but some will not.”

The meeting at the King’s Centre, Osney Mead, began with a discussion over the definition of a campus stated in the plan.

This requires that a university site must have buildings with a range of academic, research and administrative functions to be defined as a 'campus'.

The planning inspector heard from Carolyn Ploszynski, Oxford City Council planning manager, who argued that the council was specifically concerned about Oxford Brookes University defining ‘any building with a few administrative staff working at reception as a campus’.

Mr Bore said: “It would be difficult for any university to argue that it is a campus.”

Following the debate, the planning inspector concluded there would be no main modifications to the housing plan.

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Councillor Alex Hollingsworth said “We have always aimed to strike the right balance in the Local Plan between the competing needs of housing, communities, the environment and our local economy.

“We’ve worked positively with our neighbouring councils to reach this point and we look forward to continuing to do that as the Local Plan moves towards adoption as soon as possible.”

The Local Plan aims to plan new housing, jobs, community facilities, and infrastructure in Oxford for the next 20 years.

The council’s team will now work on including all modifications from the last three weeks to the plan and will aim to publish those by the middle of February.

Involved parties and members of the public will then be able to respond to the newly-added amendments.