The doors finally open today at Witney’s new Marriotts Walk shopping centre, bringing a range of major names — Marks & Spencer and Debenhams among them — along with a range of restaurants and a five-screen cinema.

The buoyant news from the market town is in stark contrast to the situation at the Westgate Centre, in Oxford, which looks like undergoing a revamp at best in the short term, with a question mark hanging over the future of its major, long-awaited redevelopment.

Good luck to Witney with its new multi-storey car park and the district council’s pledge to retain free car parking in the town. Let us just hope that the town’s road network, which struggles to cope at times even now, will be able to manage this boost to the town’s prosperity.