A CIVIC square dominated by a luxury 150-bed hotel and conference centre is being put forward in a new planning blueprint for Oxford.

The idea of a "flexible conference facility" which could also serve as a new concert venue, has emerged as one of the city council's favoured options in a redeveloped Oxpens.

The Oxford City Council document says a conference centre is needed to meet big growth in business tourism, while it was "essential" for a multi-purpose complex to be linked to a hotel to ensure its viability.

It is proposed that new joint city and county council offices, with floorspace of about 18,500ft, should also surround the large new square.

The West End Area Action Plan is the first such one to be undertaken in Oxford under new planning rules. It sets out the city council's preferred options for the regeneration of the south west quarter of Oxford.

The plan says: "Oxpens Square would be a new public space, surrounded by new buildings with an urban and civic quality. The square would be located next to Oxpens Road as part of the Oxpens site and measure approximately 50m by 50m."

The draft action plan will go before the council's central, south and west area committee for approval on Tuesday and then the council's executive.

It also calls for the nearby Frideswide Square to be completely redesigned to provide "an attractive gateway to the city centre" and to bring about "continuous slow traffic flow" to what is now a chaotic and confusing bottleneck. The Royal Oxford Hotel now looks certain to be redeveloped as part of any scheme.

It also suggests that the future of Oxpens's most recognisable building, the ice rink, is limited. "The building and the plant are 'life expired'," it reports.

"It would require an almost complete redevelopment to bring it up to the standard of a modern facility. Oxford City Council is unable to generate more money for the ice rink given its poor structural condition and the fact that it it is too small to stage entertainment or top-level ice hockey."

It discloses that an investigation into the ice rink's future is being undertaken, adding: "One possibility is to move the ice rink and provide it alongside a pool, which is an energy-efficient way of providing these facilities."

It has also emerged that the city wants to see the council-owned New Theatre substantially upgraded as part of the regeneration of the city's West End.

The council's planning policy manager, Mark Jaggard, said: "We are keen to see a major refurbishment and upgrading including the theatre's frontage on George Street. We also want to improve access to the theatre at the rear."

The city also proposes the redevelopment of the Odeon cinema in Gloucester Green, in order to give the cinema a more "active frontage" and help integrate Gloucester Green and George Street.

The document says: "The renaissance of Oxford's West End presents the opportunity for change on an unprecedented scale within the city, bringing with it potential for a wide spectrum of regeneration benefits.

"This will bring with it a new vitality to the area, similar to that seen in other British cities that have experienced change over recent years such as Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds."

The document calls for between 600 and 1,000 new homes in the West End, a reduction from earlier suggestions.

It says that the backers of two major cultural projects, a science centre and a children's literature museum want to locate the museums to the West End.

For Worcester Street car park, the action plan comes out firmly in favour of creating "a landmark water feature with development around the edges", while noting that the site might have to be used "temporarily for bus turning so that Queen Street can be pedestrianised".

An alternative to creating a canal basin, it says, could be "a water feature that looks like a canal but does not function as one".

One of the key sites in the West End will be Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, which has appointed architects to produce a masterplan of a redeveloped and more open-fronted college.

A public consultation on the preferred options should be held in September, with the West End Action Area Plan expected to submitted to the Government next summer.

The draft plan follows extensive work by a 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.