BERKELEY Homes plans to build new homes for hundreds of Oxford Brookes University students on the site of the Territorial Army base at The Slade.

Berkeley has bought the site from Oxford City Council and this week it submitted detailed plans to build 72 houses and flats, along with 362 student rooms.

The deal is thought to have put more than £5m into the coffers of the city council, which is grappling with a multi-million-pound hole in next year's budget.

But the Berkeley plans show a substantial increase in the number of homes and students on the site.

In June, the city gave outline planning consent for 53 houses and 276 student rooms.

Berkeley will be developing the site with Unite, which specialises in building student accommodation. It is expected that most of the students will be returning students and postgraduates of Oxford Brookes University.

The site on Mascall Avenue was leased to the Ministry of Defence by the city council and has been been home to the Territorial Army since the 1950s.

Land on the periphery of the site was recently released by the TA. The remaining part of the site will be handed over in December 2008, with the barracks to be demolished.

About a quarter of the proceeds of the sale will go to the MoD, which had still had 20 years on its lease. This will help fund a TA facility at Dalton Barracks, Abingdon, with work due to start this month and be completed in August.

The city council earlier agreed that it would use its share of the windfall to improve the council's housing stock.

The detailed planning application submitted to the city council this week proposes closing Mascall Avenue, with a single point of access to the site, off Blackstock Close.

The student accommodation will be predominantly three-storey and four-storey buildings, with flat roofs.

The residential element will be made up of 49 one- and two-bedroom flats and 23 three- and four-bedroom houses.

Andrew Saunders Davies, chairman of Berkeley Homes Oxfordshire, said: "Berkeley and Unite are now the joint owners and we are delighted to be working with Unite to carry out the student housing element of the site.

"In partnering with Unite it was of paramount importance that their development and management were of the highest quality. Their track record in this regards is first-class and their commitment to being part of the local community will be of real benefit to the area."

He said he hoped work could start early in the new year with the development completed by 2010.

He said: "A high degree of security will be provided, including CCTV and 24/7 on-site management. The parking spaces on the student site will be allocated to staff only. Students will not be permitted to bring cars on site."

Mary Hope, chairman of the New Headington Residents' Association, said: "My gut feeling is that more homes for families are needed. It will mean an awful lot of young people in the area. So we must hope that Brookes will provide ample transport."

Tony Joyce, chairman of the co-ordinating committee of Headington Residents' Associations, said: "I feel this accommodation could be provided without causing too much disturbance to the residential area because the route from the site to the Brookes campus is along a main road.

"My first impression is that in some ways the lay-out has been improved, so it is capable of taking more housing than originally proposed."

The chairman of the city council's north east area committee, David Rundle, said: "The previous application for this site was controversial because the affordable element only applies to the houses and flats and not the whole site. What we will have to look at is how this application differs from the permission that already exists. It could be argued that more halls of residence will free up houses in the local community for families."

Some local residents had expressed regret that the South African War Memorial at the TA barracks is to be moved, with the statue of the Boer War soldier having become a local landmark representing part of The Slade's history.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The statue is still at Slade Barracks. But it will eventually be moved to Dalton Barracks where it will become the centrepiece of the new TA Centre."