PLANS for a 180-bedroom hotel in the heart of Summertown would ‘exacerbate’ traffic and parking problems and miss an opportunity to provide much-need housing in the area.

The budget hotel – run by easyHotel, part of the same group as easyJet – would be built on the site currently occupied by Majestic Wine and estate agent Knight Frank.

Concerns have been raised over traffic, parking and privacy, with some of the rooms potentially looking directly into the proposed Summer Fields Pre-prep school and nearby offices. More than 250 objections, from residents, businesses and schools, have been made against the plans which could now be altered.

But The Oxford Times understands that residents of the five flats due to be lost have already been given eviction notices and told demolition will begin in June.

The Summertown and St Margaret’s neighbourhood forum group said it would ‘exacerbate’ the area’s traffic, parking and pollution problems.

It said: “The hotel will increase traffic congestion in Summertown.

“Banbury Road is a pollution hotspot – increased traffic associated with the hotel and idling engines of taxis and coaches picking up and dropping guests can only make this worse.”

The number of parking spaces at the site would reduce from 43 to 22, with up to 20 cycle spaces, but easyHotel defended the numbers by saying there would be ‘no material increase in vehicle activity’ accessing the site once the hotel is open.

City councillor for the area, Andrew Gant, said: “Parking controls will not prevent hotel guests using local streets overnight, resulting in potential considerable extra on-street parking.

“ There will inevitably be an increase in traffic, including guests arriving by coach – Mayfield Road is one way and runs past a school, and cannot support any increase in traffic.”

Driverless car company Oxbotica, whose headquarters are next to the hotel site, added to the hundreds of objections at the end of the consultation last month. Facilities co-ordinator, Lizzie Wells, said all vehicles leaving the hotel would have drive past the company’s offices, adding that the company had privacy concerns both for its offices and the Summer Fields pre-prep school – due to open in September.

She said: “The proposed plans for the hotel show not only that we can look directly into hotel bedrooms from our office space, the bedrooms will look into our office space but also directly into Summer Field Schools pre-prep.”

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