ANOTHER day and another blow for Oxford’s city centre with the foundering of plans to build a £22m shopping arcade in St Aldate’s.

Global equity firm the Carlyle Group has withdrawn its planned shopping centre linked to Queen Street because it cannot agree how much Section 106 money it should put forward as part of the scheme.

It is a tragedy if this is to be the death knell of the plan because it was the most solid of all the proposals to revamp the city centre.

Almost everything else seems on the never-never, and day-by-day Oxford is losing ground as a shopping destination.

But, no matter how desperate this city is to get some progress towards giving us the centre we deserve, it is right for Oxford City Council not to bend in its requirements for contributions towards infrastructure.

Section 106 payments are important and the council would be grossly irresponsible if it allowed one developer to pay peanuts just because the scheme is important.

The one positive to cling to is that this is prime land and is too valuable to be allowed to fester.

But we need to see some progress in our city.