Flats housing vulnerable and elderly people in Oxford city centre have become the battleground in the Westgate Centre redevelopment.

Abbey Place in St Ebbe's, the city council-owned flats for disabled and elderly occupants, would be flattened if the application gets the go-ahead.

Oxford City Council has yet to identify alternative accommodation, but in the next few weeks is set to reveal the results of preliminary investigations into securing land by compulsory purchase orders.

City councillor Sushila Dhall, a leading critic of the project, said the plans were causing anxiety for people who would rather die in their flats than move home.

She said: "These 14 dwellings are purpose-built in the location they are in and have been painstakingly and individually adapted to cater for the unique needs of their residents.

"Residents have been treated as if this part of the proposal is a fait accompli and have been very depressed and anxious as a result. I object to the description of the demolition as 'the redevelopment of Abbey Place', which is callous, misleading and dehumanising."

A specially convened meeting of the council's strategic development control committee meets later this month to determine the application.

However, because of its size it is likely the application will be 'called in' by Government communities secretary Ruth Kelly.

Christian Pattison, a carer with the Cowley-based charity Crossroads, said 52-year-old multiple scleroris sufferer Vincent McKeown, for whom he cares, would have to be dragged "kicking and screaming" from his Abbey Place flat.

He said: "They came in from the beginning asking people where they would like to be rehoused, but there is no disabled housing stock in the area.

"The reason why people moved here in the first place was to have access to the city centre. They are being pushed out for commercial interests.

"They would have to physically extract Vincent from here because there is nowhere else he would have a similar quality of life."

The plan to revamp the Westgate Centre is estimated to cost £300m and could be open by 2011.

A council spokesman said: "We have been discussing a range of options with our six tenants and the three households that occupy the shared ownership properties in Abbey Place so that if the Westgate planning application is approved, suitable equivalent accommodation can be found for them.

"Until planning permission is granted it is too soon to be making alternative arrangements.

"If the planning application is approved, the council may well obtain a compulsory purchase order if other routes to secure landownership are unsuccessful.

"We have carried out some preliminary investigations and a report is due to our executive committee in November."