HEADINGTON residents will soon get a chance to have their say on plans to replace a house which some say has blighted their area.

Plans to knock down the dilapitated house at 29 Old High Street, and then build five, three-storey houses on the site are to go before a Government planning inspector.

Owner Martin Young has not lived in the house for more than five years and it has fallen into a state of disrepair.

He applied for permission to demolish it last year but was refused by Oxford City Council.

The authority said the house – in a conservation area – “retains the character of a quite rural village”.

And in March it imposed an improvement order on Mr Young to refurbish the home, but the work has not been done.

He has lodged an appeal against the refusal of the homes plan with the Planning Inspectorate, which will hold a public hearing in August.

Sarah King, of Friends of Old Headington conservation group, said she objected to his plan.

She said: “We would like to see the house restored and turned into a family home. It is perfectly possible to do.

“It would be out of character for Old Headington to cram that many houses into a plot that size.”

Mr Young, of Headington Hill, said: “I am expecting a barrage of flack of all sorts.

“When the court imposed the improvement order it said the house was an eyesore so I will be throwing that back at them.”

He previously hit Oxford Mail headlines for fighting Oxford Brookes University over its new £132m campus and attempting to turn a patch of land in Littlemore into a rubbish tip.

The planning hearing is at the Town Hall in St Aldate’s on Thursday, August 2 at 10am.

The council has said it will wait for the appeal result before deciding on any further action.

  • To give your views to the hearing, email teamp13@pins.gsi.gov.uk or call 0117 372 6372.