More than 900 businesses in Oxford will shortly be receiving the final blueprint of a controversial plan to boost trading conditions in the city centre.

The scheme to create a Business Improvement District (BID) will see traders forced to pay a further 1 per cent on top of their normal rates in exchange for extra services such as outlawing illegal pedlars and deep cleaning of streets.

City centre management company OX1, which is behind the proposals, aims to raise £4m over five years.

Now bosses have sent out the document with a DVD highlighting key features of the plan and how they will benefit businesses and the city centre as a whole.

OX1 chief executive Oliver O'Dell said: "We have worked hard to involve owners and managers in drawing up this proposal.

"At the same time, we've already invested in events and activities to help boost business and improve the trading environment.

"Now it's up to those 900-plus businesses to decide and we would like to encourage every one of them to study the proposals, take a look at the DVD and vote."

But city centre traders still have mixed feelings about the scheme, Frank Watson, owner of A Watson & Sons in the Covered Market and Broad Street shops Bonnie and Flags said: "The Covered Market traders are already facing a massive rent increase - surely the city council can pay for these extra services out of that."

Richard Alden, chairman of the Covered Market Traders' Association, said: "We don't want to pay for services twice.

"But we also see the BID as an opportunity to promote the city in a commercial way outside the political arena.

"We have got to create an environment for people to want to come to Oxford and there is a lack of commercial will to do that right now."

Businesses will vote during June, with the results declared on Monday, July 7.

To win the vote, OX1 needs a "double" majority - majority of businesses must vote in favour and those in favour must account for more than 50 per cent of the rateable value of business in the area.