THE people of Oxford are to have their say in the summer on a multi-million pound scheme to regenerate a quarter of the centre of the city.

A West End Area Action Plan, setting out how Oxford's West End would be developed from "an under utilised backwater" to a vibrant redeveloped area, was significantly moved forward this week with a detailed planning time table. The West End Steering Group agreed that plans are now advanced enough to put their preferred options to the public in July.

The massive redevelopment plan would include the creation of up to four public squares along a tree-lined Oxpens boulevard and the creation of 1,200 homes.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College is moving ahead with plans for new buildings on its Oxpens site to create a modern "outward facing" college. It also now looks increasingly likely that Oxford Ice Rink will be demolished and replaced by a new ice skating attraction.

Plans will also be put forward to create a new council building in Oxpens, to be the shared headquarters of Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council.

The leader of Oxford City Council, Alex Hollingsworth, speaking after Tuesday's meeting of the steering group, said: "The castle site is nearly completed. A planning application is about to be submitted for the Westgate. I think things are moving quickly.

"We have moved beyond the vision to the detailed planning process, with individual schemes taking shape in people's minds. The West End involves a complex series of sites under a variety of land ownerships. But it is not all going to happen at once. We have seen similar schemes in cities like Leeds and they go on for ten years or so."

He looked forward to "an entire new community" taking shape within the development. But the public will first be asked to give their views on options as part of an ongoing consultation process now demanded by new planning legislation on major regeneration schemes. The Action Plan being drawn up will be the first undertaken in Oxford under the new planning rules.

The preferred options of the steering group made up of the city and county council leaders, Seeda (South East England Development Agency) and the principal of the higher education college will go before the city's Central, South and West Area Committee in June before going to the council executive.

Options will be set out covering the number and type of new homes, the straightening of Oxpens and pedestrianisation of Queen Street. The council's chief planner Michael Crofton-Briggs said new planning procedures meant the views of the public would be sought on the emerging work rather than a set of agreed policies.

Sally Dicketts, principal of Oxford and Cherwell Valley, said the regeneration offered the chance to provide "landmark further education buildings for the local community".

Progress in moving towards a regeneration masterplan had previously been complicated by the possibility of moving Oxford Railway Station to Oxpens, an option now dropped.

An engineering consultant's report last winter found that the present station could be expanded with additional tracks built over Botley Road, killing off faint hopes of building a new station as the centrepiece in a redeveloped West End.

The West End Action Plan will substantially draw on a development framework produced last year by urban design consultants David Lock Associates, which saw housing as the key to the regeneration of a huge area of central Oxford that stretches from the railway station to St Aldate's, and from the Thames north to Hythe Bridge Street.

Much of the focus will be on developing under-utilised land, including all the existing car and coach parks. Land along the Castle Mill Stream was identified as being ideal for residential development.

But in addition to a new city centre community and shops, the scheme will include offices, leisure facilities and water fronts. The consultation will cover bus routes across the West End, with the city determined to use the exercise to assess public mood on taking buses out of Queen Street.

Seeda's development director Paul Hudson made clear that the completion of the Oxford prison and castle scheme marked the beginning of the West End's regeneration.