Timbmet‘s Cumnor Hill site is recommended to be earmarked for housing under Oxford city council’s draft local strategic plan.

Timbmet Group chief executive Simon Fineman said: “We have been trying to get planning permission to build houses on the site for a couple of years. The land should be redesignated from industrial use to housing and the recommendation is that we should be allowed to build houses – but we would still have to get outline and then detailed planning permission and that will take a number of years.

“We recognise that sooner or later we will have to move. The local authority has said it would rather see houses than a timber yard here and we would rather be on a site where our lorries can leave at 5am rather than 6am.

&#8220The local authority has said it would rather see houses than a timber yard here and we would rather be on a site where our lorries can leave at 5am rather than 6am.”

Simon Fineman, Timbmet chief executive

“We polled our staff as to where they would like to move, and the consensus was to Didcot where there is a big industrial estate.”

Timbmet owns 80 acres at Cumnor Hill, 15 acres of which is inside the green belt. Mr Fineman said: “The site is geared towards a huge amount of outdoor storage but things have moved on and now we need to keep timber dry and warm.”