Key areas in the centre of Oxford, including Bonn Square, Broad Street and Queen Street, could all be resurfaced using granite -- the material that caused so much trouble during the repaving of Cornmarket Street.

Oxford City Council has signalled its intention to push on with its ambitious public realm strategy, a blueprint for how the city centre could look in years to come.

Granite bought from China caused long delays to the Cornmarket Street repaving project because it cracked under the weight of delivery vehicles.

The news that granite could be used in other projects comes just a fortnight after the publication of an inquiry into why the Cornmarket scheme went so badly wrong and could end up costing more than £5m.

Liberal Democrat city councillor Jim Campbell, one of the members of the inquiry panel, said: "It's vital that the city centre regeneration continues.

"It would be very sad if this fiasco was allowed to just make people terrified of any future work."

In 2002, when half the street was complete, the project was halted because cracks started to appear in the surface, which was ripped up and replaced with a central asphalt strip surrounded by York stone.

John Goddard, the council's lead member on the public realm strategy from 2000 to 2002, said: "I think people have learned their lessons, but in future such expensive schemes are going to have to be funded outside the council."