A NEW supermarket could be added to the Westgate redevelopment to breathe new life into the recession-hit city shopping centre scheme.

Plans for a major supermarket in Abbey Place, with a multi-storey car park built on top, are now being looked at to make the much-delayed Westgate scheme viable.

Waitrose is being viewed as the early favourite to operate the major food store, which now looks like being added to the original plan.

The supermarket is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which is still expected to be the flagship store at the complex.

The main car park and a turning area for buses had been proposed at Abbey Place, but it seems the key to getting the project restarted is to make the Westgate shopping area bigger.

But Oxford City Council has admitted the new plans for the Westgate would mean the amount of housing included in the development would be substantially reduced.

It is also likely that the proposed 1,100 car parking spaces will also have to be reduced. It would also allow plans for a large underground basement car park at Abbey Place to be scrapped.

Council leader Bob Price said: “The proposal would improve the value of the overall site. Having a food store on the ground floor would create more selling space. It might well be Waitrose, if all went well.”

The idea of extending the retail space in the new Westgate was set out in a report presented to Oxford City Council’s executive last night.

The report warned: “The scheme as originally envisaged is not currently financially viable.

“Discussions have therefore been continuing with the developer and the John Lewis Partnership to identify a scheme that is acceptable to all parties.”

Jeremy Collins, head of retail development for John Lewis, said: “We remain committed to working with the council and Capital Shopping Centres to find a solution.”

Councillors were last night expected to instruct officers to work with the developers to make the development agreement legally binding until June 2010.

But – as previously reported in the Oxford Mail – It is unlikely the centre will be ready before 2014.

Sushila Dhall, the Green Party city councillor for the Carfax ward, said: “I am appalled that they are thinking of this without any public consultation or taking into account the changed economic environment and the huge need for affordable housing in the city.

“This is an opportunity to protect Abbey Place housing.

“We are in danger of losing social housing because no-one wants to lose face about the way it has been handled.”

news@oxfordmail.co.uk