OXFORD ring road is set to be transformed into a landscaped city street as part of “once in a generation opportunity” to create up to 1,200 homes at Barton West.

Proposals for “a vibrant new community” on a 36-hectare site on the north side of the A40 are expected to be approved at a meeting of the full Oxford City Council on Monday.

And the draft action plan makes clear that the ring road will be radically changed to remove “a noisy, visually dominating physical barrier” that isolates Barton.

The speed limits on the stretch north of the Green Road roundabout would be cut from 70mph to 40 mph with new homes fronting the road “to ensure there is no sense of separation between the new neighbourhood and the rest of Oxford”.

However, controversial proposals for 150 homes on Ruskin Fields, on the other side of the ring road, have not made it into the draft Barton Area Action Plan.

The Ruskin College element of the scheme had been bitterly opposed by Old Headington residents.

The impact on a conservation area and problems with access, meant the Ruskin development could put at risk the bigger scheme, councillors will be told.

The action plan promises the Barton West housing development would “reflect Oxford’s status as a world class city”, while stimulating the regeneration of the whole area.

It says: “The development will be a new piece of the city, distinct from other areas but wholly integrated in the fabric of Oxford.

“It will have its own identity, with a neighbourhood core and open spaces that link the site together.” The homes, of mixed size and type, would be accessed directly from the ring road via a new signal-controlled junction or roundabout.

To prevent rat-running, the junction or roundabout would be designed so only buses have access into Northway.

There would be two other access roads into the estate — from Barton from Fettiplace Road and Barton Village Road.

Changes to the ring road will be designed to avoid the new development being separated from Northway, Headington and the rest of Oxford.

Noise levels would be cut by speed reductions, with the central reservation cleared of dense vegetation acting as “a green barrier” and re- landscaped so “that it is more in keeping with a street running through the city”.

Lower speeds would allow “multiple” crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, “helping to transform the look, feel and operation of this stretch of ring road”.

But the former president of Oxford Civic Society, Mark Barrington-Ward, warned: “Trying to treat the A40, a national traffic artery, as a street is a deeply flawed concept. It would deliberately expose new homes on both sides to the fumes and lights of heavy traffic, and noise that is unlikely to be reduced substantially by a 40mph speed limit, assuming that is obeyed.

“It will create poor living conditions. The A40 will not become a street visually since the crossing will be separated by six lanes of road, nor socially, since it will only be crossable safely at three or four points.”

Old Headington residents welcomed news that the proposal to build on fields in Ruskin College’s campus were not in the action plan.

Veronica Hurst, co-chairman of the Ruskin Fields Group, formed by the Friends of Old Headington, said: “We are delighted that planning officers have decided that it is not appropriate to build 150 houses in these small fields. They are a key feature of the conservation area and houses there would have been a disaster.

“Public opinion was overwhelmingly against it and there was no workable access for vehicles.”

But the Principal of Ruskin, Prof Audrey Mullender, said that the college was not giving up on its housing plan.

She said: “The college is disappointed. We still believe that Ruskin Fields could provide much-needed affordable housing for Oxford. It is a shame that the site is being looked at in such a narrowly local context rather than in terms of its far wider importance for the city.”

If councillors follow officers’ recommendations to approve the scheme, there will be a six-week consultation early in the new year, with the scheme submitted to the Communities Secretary in March. A public examination is expected in July, with the council hoping to start work in early 2014.