THE DEVELOPERS behind Oxford’s new Westgate Centre last night warned the scheme may become “unviable” because of a planned new charge.

The Westgate Oxford Alliance Limited Partnership warned that it may no longer be able to do the redevelopment if Oxford City Council introduces a controversial new charge for developers which would cost them £3.4m.

Council bosses want to introduce the community infrastructure levy (CIL) to help fund transport, health and community projects around Oxford.

But now the alliance – formed by Westgate Oxford Alliance GP Ltd, Land Securities Group and the Crown Estate, the co-owners of the shopping centre – has warned: “The CIL rate for retail penalises larger schemes and could render a development of the scale of Westgate commercially unviable.”In its comments to the forthcoming public inquiry on the charge, the alliance added it had a “capped allowance” to meet all its developer contributions.

Its letter added: “As a consequence... there is a real concern that the scheme is going to be made unviable.”

A spokesman for the alliance refused to say how much money it had put aside for the scheme – prompting criticism from city council planning chiefs.

The amount developers pay in CIL will be based on the size of the project, with retail schemes paying £100 per square metre.

That means the 34,000 square metre, 100 shop Westgate project would cost the developers an extra £3.4m if the proposed new rate is approved this month.

City councillor Colin Cook called on the developers to be open about their budget and costs.

He said: “If they want us to release them from the requirements of CIL they will have to go open book with us to prove they are being serious about it.

“If the development really is non-viable we will have to look again.

“I don’t think CIL would make the Westgate development unviable and we could have these arguments for everybody who wants to develop.

“We think this is a reasonable level to charge.”

Other forms of contribution such as section 106 – which is a similar payment but covers more specific developments near the particular sites – remain.

Mr Cook said the amount of section 106 contributions the developers pay would be less because of CIL but said the exact amount would not be agreed until a planning application was submitted.

Westgate Oxford Alliance is currently negotiating a legal agreement for the site and a planning application is expected later this year.

Graham Jones, of retail campaign group ROX, said: “We need to get on with the Westgate Centre as soon as possible and anything that stands in its way would be a great shame.”

The alliance was unable to say how much the Westgate scheme would cost, but an earlier estimate put it at £330m.