A £40m scheme to extend Wolvercote and create hundreds of homes for university staff looks to have been dropped by Oxford University.

The university-owned Wolvercote Paper Mill site, between Lower Wolvercote and the A34, is earmarked for housing and employment units in a city council document listing preferred sites for development.

But it now appears that a plan to build between 200 and 150 homes for university staff, has been shelved.

With the university committed to the £200m redevelopment of the former Radcliffe Infirmary site in Woodstock Road, and with hundreds of millions also being spent modernising its science area, it has had to reassess.

However, it is thought the land could still be developed.

University spokesman Matt Pickles said: “The university is presently considering a number of options concerning the site of the old Wolvercote Paper Mill. But no decision will be taken for some weeks.”