THE plan to turn former men's toilets in St Giles' into bedrooms for a B&B is 'impractical', according one critic.

The owners of the Galaxie Hotel, in Banbury Road, resubmitted the plan for permission in January. They withdrew another last October.

The site is just a short walk away from the Grade I listed Ashmolean Museum.

The secretary of the Victorian Group of the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Peter Howells, told Oxford City Council: "We consider the proposed use impractical. It is one thing for a visitor to Oxford to say: 'I visited Oxford and stayed in the Gaol', but quite another to say: 'I visited Oxford and stayed in a lavatory.'"

Instead, he said the former toilets would 'provide a most useful gents toilet'.

Debbie Dance, Oxford Preservation Trust's director, said the project's 'cluttered appearance' – including glass canopies – needs 'more careful consideration'.