A RETAIL park on the edge of Oxford will be given a facelift.

Shops including a Sports Direct, M&S, Boots and Next will be given a new lease of life as the old-fashioned brick entrances will be spruced up with metal cladding and glassy frontage.

As well as making the shops have a brighter look, metal awnings above the doorways will be removed.

The retail units are on Ambassador Avenue to the south east of the Oxford ring road next to the big Tesco.

Alongside the shops is also a vacant unit which was once used by Mothercare.

Oxford City Council’s east area planning committee decided the retail park owner HSBC Bank Pension Trust, could go ahead with the changes to the retail park at its meeting on Wednesday night.

A design statement submitted with the planning application said the retail unit buildings are 'showing their age' and newer buildings on the same retail park 'provide a more attractive enjoyable experience for customers'.

It added there was an opportunity to increase the amount of glass on the front of the shops and to make everywhere look and feel more open and modern.

And in a cover letter to Oxford City Council, the applicants said: "The intention is to freshen up the elevations to improve the visual appearance, make the units more attractive to customers and tenants while at the same time improving the performance of thee building fabric in environmental terms."

There are no plans to change the layout inside the building and construction work will not have any effect on either traffic or people's ability to park outside the shops according to documents submitted with the application.

A report to the planning committee said a construction traffic management plan should be put in place to make sure that disruption to shoppers and drivers in the area is kept to a minimum.

Councillors agreed this would be a good idea and said the head of planning services should make sure the builders stick to it.

There was very little discussion of the plans at the Wednesday meeting and it was approved in minutes.

For more information about the planning application, visit the Oxford City Council website and search for planning reference 19/03236/FUL.