THE £110m redevelopment of Oxford Brookes will establish a new zone of Oxford dedicated to education and health.

The university this week unveiled the scale of its ambitions in Headington, as it published results of a public consultation, showing strong support for contemporary architecture.

Brookes says it hopes to create "an iconic" new building on Headington Road to ensure the site is instantly recognisable as one of the UK's leading universities.

But it will respond to ongoing criticism about traffic and car parking, with a pledge that a new-look Gipsy Lane site will meet needs of the local community.

A large public square is expected to form one of the centre pieces of a modern campus, with more open space accessible to the public and Brookes planning to reduce the total of academic space by ten per cent.

And it says it is ready to respond to public calls to locate the university's community facilities to directly face Headington Road.

Prof John Raftery, pro-vice chancellor, said: "The decisions we make today will reshape the university for the future.

"We are particularly interested in the notion of Headington becoming a health and education zone of Oxford and in making people aware that they are passing through a different kind of quarter.

"With the students and car parking everyone knows about the negatives. But we are trying to think about our public role.

"This is going to be good for students, the community and the city.

"Almost 70 per cent of the Gipsy Lane campus dates back to the 1950s and 1960s. We want to improve the architecture.

"We want to use this opportunity to achieve viable solutions to issues like parking and traffic."

The first phase of the redevelopment will begin as early as March when Brookes hopes to demolish the Darcy Building, which takes up about a third of the Gipsy Lane site.

The first draft of the masterplan for the ten-year redevelopment scheme should be submitted in January.

More than 400 people took part in the university's Space To Think public consultation.

It showed that 70 per cent want Brookes to embrace contemporary, not historic architecture, with a strong emphasis on more green spaces.

Seventy-five per cent called on Brookes to promote alternatives for Headington Road and move away from the "busy road" image and develop a distinctive identity for the area.

In the consultation, 42 per cent of people said the most important thing for Brookes was to improve its buildings and landscape.

But it now appears, despite the vast cost of the scheme, some of the large 1960s structures such as the St Clerici and Abercrombie buildings will be retained.

Sixty per cent of respondents called on Brookes to improve parking and encourage more cycle journeys.

Transport, noise and disturbances and the quality of design were rated as the top concerns.

Residents also rated the Brookes Bus as the most popular contribution the university makes to the city.

Prof Raftery said: "We are widely acknowledged to be the leading modern university in the UK, but our current buildings do not reflect this status.

"I am pleased to see there is strong support for Brookes to develop a contemporary identity to ensure Oxford has two internationally renowned, but distinctive, universities."

Latest figures show a three per cent rise in student numbers at Brookes. The university has now set itself the goal of increasing its students in halls of residences by 1,000 to 4,955.

But hopes that 360 of its students might be accommodated at Dorset House have received a blow.

Plans to demolish the red brick Victorian property in London Road to make way for five accommodation blocks have been withdrawn, following strong local protest.

The development company Quintain dropped the application after a planners' report found the development size and massing to be detrimental to the area. A spokesman said the company would reflect on the report and consider the possibility of producing a revised scheme.

Tony Joyce, chairman of Oxford Civic Society, welcomed the news. He said: "We are pleased that the applicants have seen sense and withdrawn what was an unacceptable application the first place."

Meanwhile, the Civic Society has expressed concerns about moves by developers to demolish three Victorian properties at 88, 90 and 90a Windmill Road.

The houses were built by the Mattock family, Oxford's celebrated rose growers. Their rose gardens were compulsorily purchased by the city council and Mattock Close was built on them in the early 1980s.