A CITY pub was sold for too high a price, council planners said, as they urged an inquiry to throw out plans to turn it into flats.

Saxonville Ltd this week argued Oxford City Council was wrong to reject its plans for six flats at the former Maroon pub in February.

Councillors vetoed the plan at the one-time Chequers in St Thomas Street in an affordable housing row.

The developer then appealed to the independent Planning Inspectorate, which held an inquiry at Oxford Town Hall on Tuesday.

The council has a policy which demands that developments of four to nine units must give cash for housing elsewhere in the city.

Yet Saxonville would not pledge these funds, saying that it was exempt because the cash would make its own flats plan unaffordable.

Mark Jaggard, council economic development manager, said the £482,121 sale price was “huge” as the building was in a flood plain.

He said: “The fundamental of the planning system is it brings various costs into development. “Hence there is a planning system rather than a free for all.” The council said the pub was worth from £170,000 to £221,000.

A key point is how the council decided on the potential for the scheme to fund affordable housing.

It calculates viability by subtracting building costs from how much the developer would make selling the flats. If this is far greater than its existing value the scheme is classed as viable.

While the council used the existing value based on the closed pub, Saxonville insisted the building’s future value should be used.

Another point of contention was the council’s case that building costs had been overestimated.

Peter Uzzell, of JPPC Chartered Town Planners, said more detailed costings had now been provided.

Further arguing for the value of the site, he pointed out that the value of buildings for flats are “generally as good” as that for shops.

He then told inspector Jacqueline Wilkinson, who will make a decision at the later date, that Tesco bought Marston’s Friar pub for £1m and the Fox and Hounds in Abingdon Road went for £1.9m.

One resident objected over the loss of the pub and potential street parking problems while the Oxford Civic Society said the scheme proposed “too many houses” with not enough affordable ones.