A STRIKING image of the new Westgate Centre viewed from the redeveloped Bonn Square has been released to mark "a major milestone" for the schemes.

A detailed planning application for the new £300m shopping centre was submitted to Oxford City Council this week as councillors were approving plans for a transformed Bonn Square.

Fifty copies of the massive 1,600-page application were delivered to city council offices, with the Westgate Partnership confidently predicting they would receive Town Hall backing.

Director Richard Cable said: "Hopefully the scheme will not be called in and we will receive planning consent before the year is out. "

The image, right, shows the entrance to the 750,000 sq ft shopping centre, with the glazed frontage of the new Oxford central library visible between the two trees.

The building on the left, now occupied by Primark, is shown with new over-cladding and additional windows.

The proposals include new shopping streets, a John Lewis department store, a new car park and 127 city centre homes. Plans for 90 new shops, bars, restaurants and cafes are also included in the application, which also contains a whole array of green initiatives, such as a roof-top garden, solar panels, rainwater collection and natural ventilation.

Mr Cable said the planning application had taken two-and-a-half years to evolve, following a major consultation on the masterplan and the detailed designs of individual buildings.

"It has been a long process but it is important to get it right. We hope that this will provide a vibrant new shopping area and reconnect the Westgate with the rest of the city centre."

Mr Cable said he did not expect the local elections, which saw Town Hall power passing from Labour to the Lib Dems, to affect the plan's progress.

"We have worked with all the parties collectively and individually. There has been positive feedback from everyone that we have worked with, including the Government Office for the South East and English Heritage."

He was speaking as the city council's central, south and west area committee approved a scheme to transform Bonn square into "a 21st-century public space".

The designs are from the Edinburgh architects, Graeme Massie, which won a competition that attracted 100 worldwide entries.

The Westgate developer is expected to contribute towards the £1.5m improvements to Bonn Square, and transport improvements to Oxford.

Jane McFarland, group development manager for the Westgate Partnership, said: "The financial contribution for strategic transport improvements, which could include park-and-ride, is still being very carefully considered.

"They will be finalised prior to the Westgate planning application being determined. For us it may feel like the end of a journey. But for many people this will be the first opportunity to look at everything that has been done and to start asking detailed questions."

She said the project would produce more than 2,000 new retail and construction jobs, with plans to link up with Oxford and Cherwell Valley College on training programmes.

The new leader of Oxford City Council, John Goddard, said: "I am delighted that there is a real prospect that Westgate and Bonn Square will move ahead within the next year. At last the Westgate looks like moving forward with a serious and well-considered application."

He said it looked like Oxford shoppers would have to wait for the pedestrianisation of Queen Street.

But he believed it was "unreasonable" to make any developer solely responsible for solving Oxford's transport problems.

For the Labour group, Bob Price said: "From the city's point of view, this is one of the most important developments seen for many years. It will transform the nature of the retail on offer and architecturally it seems very exciting. The urban design element complements the rest of West End development."

Oxford Preservation Trust, which had opposed a scheme rejected four years ago by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, expressed cautious optimism.

OPT director Debbie Dance said: "We are expecting it to be significantly better than the earlier application. We have made our views known about the need to integrate the scheme with the city and have been out with the architects to assess any impact on the Oxford skyline.

"It is a large development and now it has been submitted we will have to look at the final detail."

The new buildings were designed by two award-winning architects, Allies & Morrison and Building Design Partnership, with the landscape designer Robert Townshend.

The inspiration for the £40m John Lewis building is said to be a modern furniture store in Berlin.