IN 2003 two council leaders took a stroll together around Oxford’s West End. They were political rivals Keith Mitchell, then Conservative leader of Oxfordshire County Council, and Alex Hollingsworth, the Labour leader of Oxford City Council.

The pair were asked to stand in a damp car park and imagine a new Westgate Shopping Centre, a redeveloped Oxpens and a revitalised Oxford Station.

Now – over a decade later – the first of the projects they set into motion is set to begin.

Developer The Westgate Oxford Alliance won planning permission at the end of November, clearing the way for work to begin early this year.

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Demolition will begin in the coming weeks, with the shopping centre scheduled to be finished by autumn 2017.

The £400m scheme is the first major project planned as part of the regeneration of Oxford’s West End, where council bosses hope to create a new and vibrant quarter of the city.

It will see the current multi-storey car park bulldozed to make way for the new 800,000 sq ft centre, which will have an underground car park.

Mr Mitchell: “I do still remember taking that stroll with Alex and having a good look around.

“It is one of those areas that I had previously just driven through, so we were quite stunned by the amount of space we found there. Oxpens Road especially is a route for people coming into the city, yet we thought it was quite a grey area.

“That was what inspired us – although we were poltically apart – to try and make something of it.”

Mr Mitchell added: “It is a good step that was hugely needed.”

The multi-storey was closed from January 6, with drivers now asked to park in a temporary car park neighbouring Oxford Ice Rink for the better part of two years.

An exhibition has opened in Oxford Central Library showing residents other schemes in the pipeline for the surrounding area. It will run until January 31.

The next scheme expected to follow Westgate is the redevelopment of unused land in Oxpens, alongside the railway line, into a mixed area of new homes, offices and retail.

Mr Hollingsworth, now city councillor for Carfax, said the completion of the new Westgate and the Oxpens project would “change the city centre.”

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He said: “Oxford has traditionally always had quite a small city centre, filled with private space and buildings owned by Oxford University and the colleges. This is a good opportunity to rebalance the centre and create more public space, for the benefit of everyone.

“With Oxpens in particular, it’s essential to get the mix of development right so that it can really become a new quarter of the city.

“If that it done in the right way, it could change the city centre.”

Oxford City Council aims to start preparation work at the site at the end of 2016 or in 2017.

The final stage of the West End’s regeneration will begin with the £75m replacement of Oxford Station.

There is no current estimate of when work could begin, about £50m of funding expected to come from private investment, has yet to be found.

The new station complex will include a new bus terminus, hotel, shops and a multi-storey car park off Becket Street. The existing station is to be demolished and replaced by a new three-storey building facing on to Frideswide Square.
Work on improving the square, with a series of roundabouts and shared spaces to ease the flow of traffic, cyclists and pedestrians is set to start this spring.
It will feature leisure facilities and shops, as well as a hotel, office space and some housing.

Mr Hollingsworth added: “It has been a long and painstaking process, but it has been personally quite gratifying to see these schemes finally starting to come to fruition.”

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