TENANTS are preparing to move into the first new council homes built in Oxford for 20 years.

Five bungalows at the £5.8m Lambourn Road development, in Rose Hill, are now finished, nine months after building work started.

The development, which replaces prefabricated Orlit homes, includes eight one-bedroom homes, 12 two-bedroom homes, 16 three-bedroom houses and two five-bedroom family homes.

David Gough, regional director of contractors Lovell, said: “We have built up an excellent relationship with Oxford City Council working at Lambourn Road and are delighted to have completed these new bungalows as part of a development which is creating high-quality, energy-efficient homes for residents.

“We hope the tenants moving in will be very happy in their new homes.”

But Peter Wilkinson, chairman of the Rose Hill Tenants’ and Residents’ Association, branded the development an “eyesore”.

He said: “People in Rose Hill aren’t happy with the development.

“Yes, we need more housing, and yes we need them to a high standard, but the views of people on the estate have been ignored.

“The council has run roughshod over the views of residents, who were never properly consulted.

“The development is a complete eyesore and completely unsuitable for Rose Hill.”

However, Dr Joe McManners, the council’s executive member for housing, said he was delighted.

He said: “This is a very exciting day.

“It has been a long time since we were able to build council homes and it’s fantastic that we’re now at the stage where we have found tenants to move into these properties.

“There was a lot of interest and I’m delighted that we have nearly finished this development, providing some much-needed housing to Oxford.”

The houses were placed on the council’s choice-based lettings list and people who had registered for a council home were able to bid for them.

The first tenants are due to move in next month.

Five more bungalows are nearly ready and they will be placed on the lettings list in December, along with 10 three-bedroom houses.

Developers Lovell said all the Rose Hill homes would be completed by March next year.

The Homes and Communities Agency gave £4m to the Lambourn Road scheme and the redevelopment of Cardinal House in Littlemore .

At Cardinal House 20 sheltered housing units are being built and 33 one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats are being refurbished.

These should also be ready by next March. The contractor for this site is the Leadbitter Group.