OXFORD’S controversial Castle Mill buildings have been branded a “disgrace” by a Government minister.

Planning minister Nick Boles visited Oxford today to talk to campaigners about the Oxford University student accommodation buildings.

He criticised both Oxford University and Oxford City Council for allowing the buildings near Port Meadow to be given planning permission in their existing form.

Mr Boles said: “Both the university and the council have a responsibility to the community of Oxford to do something about it, to lessen the impact of these buildings and to make sure that the process in future never allows something like this to happen again.

“What we can all see, looking at these buildings, is that the colour of them is obtrusive, that the materials are obtrusive, and the scale of them is obtrusive.”

He said both the university and the city council owe an apology to the people of Oxford.