We must admit to not recognising Oxpens at all on seeing the image of the proposed new John Lewis store this week. It is a measure of how much the redevelopment of the Westgate will transform this area of the city.

Oxpens has wide open spaces, albeit most of them given over to car parking. Quite rightly, thought has gone in to the design of the new store that will dominate the street scene in this area.

It is hard to judge from one image what the quality of the building will be things sound promising.

With the developers promising a planning application this month, progress is good.

Progressing a development of this scale is a delicate process, particularly in this location. Several previous attempts to redevelop the Westgate have fallen by the wayside.

Capital Shopping Centres' latest designs appear to have overcome the objections to the previous scheme rejected by John Prescott.

The one outstanding Achilles heel is transport. Has enough been done to ensure that Oxford's transport infrastructure will cope with the extra shoppers that will be drawn to the city when the centre opens?

The solution to the transport conundrum may lie in other developments in the West End of Oxford yet to be brought forward. In the meantime, the views of the highways experts will be pivotal to the outcome of CSC's planning application.