RESIDENTS have hit out at the city council after finding evidence of an ‘unforeseen’ quarry, which has delayed a community centre revamp, on the council’s own website.

Oxford City Council said it ‘had not discovered the quarry’ when the £500,000 Bullingdon Community Centre refurbishment costs were drawn up.

But it took residents and the Oxford Mail just minutes to find maps proving its existence.

The maps of a former quarry can be found in a planning application on the council’s website from 1949.

Groups have said ‘its extraordinary’ that the same council who approved the plans for the centre to be built by an old quarry, have now delayed the plans for the renovation after surveyors recently ‘discovered’ it.

The maps, show the filled in quarry overlapping the plot for the ‘proposed site’ of the centre, and a zoomed in version shows the actual pit just metres away from the walls of the building.

Earlier this week, council officers said the find was ‘unforeseen’. And now Ian Brooke, head of community services at Oxford City Council, said these hand-drawn plans are ‘not accurate’.

The centre in Peat Moors was set to benefit from a £500,000 council revamp next month, but that was thrown into uncertainty when surveyors carried out routine digging to assess the foundations of the ground.

They then ‘discovered’ the old quarry, thought to be about six metres under the oldest part of the building.

Bullingdon Community Association chairman, Steve Dawe, said: “It’s extraordinary. I find it really strange. There are some old images of the fields which combined with the planning application maps are very telling.

“It has completely destroyed their quarry argument, and now this will add extra costs to the project- we’re still in limbo.”

The centre, built after planning permission was approved in 1949, has been operating for more than 40 years beyond its expected lifespan and is now the only community centre serving Lye Valley and Wood Farm.

A trustee of the group, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “On Tuesday we were at a meeting, with Ian Brooke, and we showed them the old planning application and they looked a bit shocked and embarrassed.

“It’s crazy and really funny considering its actually on their website.”

Senior communications officer at Oxford City Council, Tom Jennings, told the Oxford Mail earlier in the week that Bullingdon Community Centre was ‘built by the local community in the late 1940s- long before Oxford City Council or planning permission existed’.

He has since apologised and thanked residents for pointing out the error.

Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services at Oxford City Council, said: “The hand-drawn plans, dating from the 1940s, are not accurate. The plans suggest Bullingdon Community Centre was not built over a quarry.

“As part of the modern preparatory process ahead of building works, test holes were dug which demonstrated that part of the building does sit over the quarry.”