Business leaders have warned that improvements to a Oxford's man shopping street must not suffer further delay - or it could have a serious effect on local trade.
The Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce say it is vital that the £2.25m Cornmarket Street improvement scheme starts as planned on July 9.
Bill McCardle, the chamber's policy manager, said: "I think that whatever happens in Oxford seems to take an extraordinary amount of time and there has been an interminable delay in redeveloping Cornmarket.
Cornmarket Street
"We've been promised resurfacing work there for years and there's a sense that it should have started two years ago. Whoever wins the election, the priority of the business community is the redevelopment of Cornmarket."
Retailers in Cornmarket say that they need the improvements to be able to compete with other shopping centres.
The resurfacing work on the main central carriageway of Cornmarket is scheduled to finish before the end of October.
The works will then be postponed until after Christmas to protect trade at the busiest time of year for retailers.
The remaining work on pavements and street furniture should be finished by the end of March 2002.
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