RESURRECTED plans for a 55-bed care home in Headington are back in the pipeline with developers hoping to be up and running in 18 months.

The proposed development for a residential and day care unit in Pullens Lane was initially blocked by Oxford City Council in August 2014.

The council said the plan to demolish existing buildings to site the home would spoil the “rural tranquillity” of the area.

Original developers Carebase then left the project to be replaced by Milton Keynes-based firm Frontier Estates.

A fresh application for the care home was submitted in January this year before being withdrawn in May.

Now, the firm has revealed that the latest, updated plans are to be resubmitted to the city council's design review board.

Mike Mansell, of Frontier Estates, said: “We are just waiting for feedback from the council. There were quite a few changes for the scheme.

“The board is very happy with the revised scheme so it is in the hands of Oxford City Council now.

“Hopefully as long as there are no major changes required we can be up at committee before Christmas.

“We hope to be on site in the spring and then it is normally a 12-month construction period.

“The project is still 55 beds but the design has changed. The pressure was to make the scheme softer and more broken up.

“The original application that was refused was a big block of a building and we have tried to turn it into something like on Pullens Lane – which is hard because there is such a mixture of houses there and that has been a challenge.”

Headington councillor Roz Smith has since raised concerns over the location of the proposed development.

She said: “Any development on Pullens Lane has to be very, very carefully thought through because that site has a lot of pedestrian traffic.

“That is quite a large one and that worries me because we have local pedestrian traffic going through there with schools and Oxford Brookes University and residents.

“I am unconvinced this is the right spot for it. It is a very large number to be putting down there.”

She added: “It’s a very, very busy road, one of the busiest in the country.”

Manager at Oxford City Council's planning department Mehdi Rezaie said he was optimistic the proposals would go in front of a planning committee by November.