Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has emerged as Oxfordshire County Council's latest foe in the battle over housing in Oxford's Green Belt.
Mr Prescott wants councils to be able to build housing in the Green Belt - so long as it is replaced with land somewhere else so the overall acreage stays the same.
The idea is contained in a draft Green Belt consultation paper published by the Government with the idea of building more houses more quickly.
Exactly how this will work is unknown, but the idea has worried County Hall. Building in Green Belt south of Grenoble Road on the southern edge of Oxford is something the city council has long been lobbying for, but county council leader Keith Mitchell said this would "feed the beast and wreck the sort of environment we have come to love". He added: "This is deadly serious. This proposal is essentially to get rid of a plan-led system and replace it with something that is driven by the market. This is a real threat and we oppose this by all means possible. I don't trust this Government and I think they want to move the Green Belt to Hull, or somewhere like that. I think they would be content if Oxford loses a chunk of Green Belt and somewhere else gains it."
Meanwhile, homeowners across Oxfordshire are to be asked where they want 8,000 new homes to be built. The options are 4,000 homes each in Bicester and Didcot, 4,000 in Didcot, and 2,000 each in Bicester and Wantage/Grove; the last option is for people to suggest where else 8,000 homes could go.
Oxford City Council will lobby the county council to build on land south of Grenoble Road. City council executive member for strategic planning, housing and economic development Ed Turner said: "The county council is in complete denial about the housing shortage in and around Oxford city and the environmental impact of increasing levels of commuting from places like Didcot and Bicester."
A Campaign to Protect Rural England county spokesman said: "If we lived in a perfect world we would not have any building in the countryside."