A ROW over a replacement railway bridge has been reignited after councillors called in plans to a top committee so they could be considered again.

As reported in yesterday’s Oxford Mail, Network Rail has applied for permission to demolish and replace the footbridge at Aristotle Lane as part of its electrification scheme.

The scheme would also have granted SS Philip and James Primary School in Navigation Way permission to expand its playground.

It had been delayed by several months due to concerns about the bridge’s design and plans to raise a path leading to it.

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On Tuesday councillors on the west area planning committee narrowly granted permission.

But yesterday city council leader Bob Price, a committee member who voted against the scheme, said he had called in the application to the planning review committee with the backing of 11 councillors. A spokesman for Oxford City Council confirmed that would mean the planning permission granted would be put on hold.

Mr Price said: “I called the application in because I still do not believe the designs are good enough and there are not enough safeguards in place for residents [with homes behind the proposed path]. The review committee may shoot my objections down, but that is now for them to decide.” Objections to raising the path – which runs behind homes on the east side of the railway tracks – came when people from Hayfield Road said it could threaten the structure of an existing wall.

Councillors also criticised the bridge’s solid sides, which Network Rail said were needed to comply with its use as a bridleway.

The planning review committee is next due to meet on March 31 in Oxford Town Hall at 6pm.