What is it about the words ‘Oxfordshire County Council’ and ‘resurfacing work’ that seems to strike fear into the hearts of some people?

With the starting pistol about to be fired on two major projects in the centre of Oxford, a right royal row about their respective merits is already under way.

Although County Hall has intermittently been restoring sections – but not all – of the historic High Street for what seems like a long time, another project is set to start later this month.

But traders said the project – estimated at £3m and set to last until April next year – amounted to little more than cosmetic surgery, the result of the weight of 2,500 buses using it each and every day.

And if that wasn’t enough, work on the controversial Transform Oxford project, which will eventually see large parts of the city centre pedestrianised, will begin on July 19.

Phase one will see bus stops removed from Queen Street.

Worryingly, perhaps, the council said it was now in talks with the bus companies about how to minimise disruption. Surely those talks should have already taken place?

Some foresee chaos, with both schemes running simultaneously.

In a bid to restore order, County Hall said there would “obviously be some disruption” but it was confident both schemes could run side-by-side.

However, traders claimed they had not been properly listened to – and have asked for the Transform Oxford work to be postponed.

What rankles with some is the breakneck pace at which this scheme has been pushed through.

With so many objections still being raised, the sensible outcome would surely be to delay work on both projects until some consensus has been reached.

All this bad blood brings back terrible memories of the botched repaving job in Cornmarket Street a few years back, a project that went so badly wrong it cost taxpayers million of pounds more than planned and a lengthy inquiry was held.

Whatever happens, let’s hope we don’t have a repeat of that fiasco.