This is an extract from the weekly Trade and Tourism newsletter by Andy Ffrench which you can sign up to for free.

As the cost of living crisis continues to hit hard, there were more closures to report on the high street.

This time the Westgate Centre - which had a £440m revamp in 2017 - was affected.

T2 - an Australian company selling posh tea - and stationers Paperchase have quit.

Paperchase has gone into administration and T2 is retreating back to the territories where it started out.

If brands at the Westgate are pulling out then it is quite likely we will see businesses in other parts of the city folding too - in Cowley Road for example where LTNs have damaged business, according to the traders themselves.

But it was not all bad news this week - the city council announced a radical £6.8m plan to reshape the Covered Market and make it more visible to shoppers.

Oxford Mail:

Changes won't happen overnight but hopefully this masterplan - which involves creating a new public space in Market Street - will help to safeguard the market for years to come.

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