A REVAMP of Cowley’s shopping centre, a new takeaway bakery, and protecting ancient stained glass are some of the building projects in Oxford this week.

For more, visit oxford.gov.uk/planning

Plans to revamp Templars Square Shopping Centre in Cowley, approved in 2017, are back on the agenda.

The plans by developer New River have been in the pipeline for a long time, and most recently in January 2020 there was a suggestion a formalised set of plans could come forward.

Now the project has reappeared on Oxford City Council’s planning portal.

The developer has submitted documents to explain how the revamped shopping centre, including a huge new tower block containing a hotel, would meet with the council’s new sustainability aims.

The council agreed a new Local Plan last year, which includes aims to boost the use of bikes, walking and buses.

In a new document attached to the application, the developer argues its plans for the shopping centre comply with these aims, because it is providing funding towards new bike lanes and storage, as well as bus stops. There are also plans to reduce the number of car parking spaces at the shopping centre from 876 spaces to 310 spaces, to discourage car use. Planning reference: 16/03006/FUL

An empty shop could soon become a takeaway bakery.

The shop at 12 Turl Street, which used to be the jewellers Rowell, could become a bakery under plans submitted to the city council.

The listed building – owned by Lincoln College – also requires special consent so that works can take place.

If the works go ahead, toilets and other staff rooms to the rear of the building will be demolished to make way for bakery workspace.

There are plans to build a new toilet in the basement below the shop instead.

Denise Richey, the applicant, also wants to place new signs outside the bakery. Planning references: 21/01056/FUL; 21/01057/LBC

A newsagents at the Westgate centre has asked permission for signs placed outside the building to be ‘regularised’.

Amjad Hussein has applied for retrospective permission for signs outside the newsagents, Globe News.

But landlord the Westgate Alliance has objected. In a letter to city council planners, the alliance said: “The applicant has unilaterally erected the signage without the prior knowledge or lease consent of he landlord.”

It added: “The projecting signage on Castle and Norfolk Street should be 500mm square panel off the shopfront only.”

Mr Hussein’s application argues ‘the adverts are entirely acceptable in the context’. Planning reference: 21/01162/ADV

A trial run on removing asbestos from Oxford University’s main science library has been approved.

The targeted trial removal from one room in the Jackson Wing of the Radcliffe Science Library, on South Parks Road, could lead to a large scale removal from the rest of the building in future.

Planning reference: 21/00569/LBC

Offices above an estate agents and wealth management firm on Banbury Road could be converted into flats.

The rooms about 257A Banbury Road could become two two-bedroom flats if the plans go ahead.

Planning reference: 21/01219/B56

Historic stained-glass windows inside an Oxford college’s quad could be protected.

The north and east-facing stained glass of Merton College’s mob quadrangle could be protected with an outer layer of anti-UV glazing.

The windows are in part medieval stained glass, and part 20th century redesigns.

Planning reference: 21/01294/LBC