SCALED-BACK plans to replace a care home in North Oxford have been recommended for approval despite opposition from neighbours.

University College and Fairfield Residential Home have proposed moving 29 elderly residents into a new 38-bedroom building on the home’s Banbury Road site – then housing 29 students in the old one.

They had also applied to have six new student homes built near the home to house a further 30 undergraduates.

As reported last month, an Oxford City Council planning committee approved the new student buildings, but councillors delayed a decision on the replacement care home so more details about design could be provided.

Neighbouring residents had raised concerns about the building, which they said would be overbearing and out of keeping with the North Oxford Victorian Suburb Conservation Area.

The plans also prompted an unusual intervention from the London-based Design Council, the Government’s advisor on design, which said they were “neither ambitious nor sensitive enough” for the site.

The Victorian group of the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society said it would be “seriously damaging to an area already overdeveloped by” colleges.

Since then revised plans have been submitted and in a new report to committee members planning officer Felicity Byrne said the scheme should go ahead. She wrote: “While officers were fully supportive of the original plans, the changes successfully respond further to the advice given.

The alterations would reduce the overall scale, height and bulk, and changes to the materials and colonnade would simplify its overall appearance. The reduction in height has also improved the relationship to the adjacent student accommodation, which the committee approved.”

The scheme to replace the care home was proposed because staff fear it could fail future inspections. They say newer facilities are needed.

But it has caused concern among residents, who fear the area is being slowly overtaken by college and university buildings. There are also concerns it could cause increased traffic, with 18 parking spaces included.

The Friends of the North Oxford Victorian Conservation Area has called for the development to be scaled back, writing to the city council: “Development should be proportionate to the site and should not result in substantial harm to the area.”

The west area planning committee will decide on the proposals tonight during a meeting at 6.30pm in Oxford Town Hall.