Owners of a shop at the heart of Witney’s Woolgate Centre have insisted they will be back when the site is redeveloped.

The closing down signs have gone up at Cargo, even though the centre owner Universities Superannuation Scheme Ltd (USS) has remained tight-lipped about when a revamp will begin.

Cargo managing director Clive Gilbert said “We are very sad to be leaving Witney, albeit temporarily. Nevertheless, we have a great relationship with our landlord, are fully supportive of its efforts to improve the Woolgate Centre and are really excited about returning with a bigger and better store next year.”

The homeware and furniture retailer plans to reopen in the middle of next year in a larger store as part of the expansion of the shopping centre.

All 12 staff members will be employed at other stores during construction.

An extra 26,000 sq ft of shop space in three department stores is planned for the centre.

USS has not revealed when it plans to begin the development and has not yet named shops which will fill the extra retail space.

Neil Hardiman, USS’s development manager, said: “We are making significant progress towards enabling the proposed extension to be delivered, and we hope to be able to confirm when work will commence on site within the next few weeks.”

Planning permission for the expansion was approved by West Oxfordshire District Council in 2007. However, work was delayed because of technical wrangling over the amount of funding developers would be putting into Section 106 Agreement funds – a pot of money developers pay into to help fund public building projects.