A NEW Westgate Shopping Centre will not be ready for Oxford shoppers until at least 2014, it emerged last night.

The future of the project has been in doubt since the recession started to bite and now it appears the city will have to wait even longer for a modern showpiece shopping centre.

The city council admitted it was still waiting for Liberty, the centre’s owner, to sign a deal with the John Lewis Partnership, which is expected to open a flagship department store in the centre.

A development agreement between the council, which owns the freehold of the centre, and Liberty is due to run out on December 31.

But council leaders have said they will not terminate the agreement until June next year, in a bid to allow Liberty and John Lewis the chance to finalise a deal and get the project back on track.

A draft report to council leaders also said the original £330m scheme was “not currently financially viable” and was “unlikely to proceed”.

It adds: “Discussions have been continuing with the developer and the prospective anchor occupier, the John Lewis Partnership, to identify a scheme that is acceptable to all parties in terms of the financial returns and the contents.”

The document adds that any new centre is likely to be scaled down in size from previous designs, to cut the cost of the project.

Council leader Bob Price said planning permission for the £330m plan would expire on March 7, but he expected a fresh application to be made once Liberty and John Lewis struck a deal.

Mr Price said: “What I think is positive is that the Liberty group are showing confidence in the site and are engaged in meaningful discussions with John Lewis, who are also committed to Oxford, so from the point of view of residents, all the signs are good.”

Mr Price added that he expected a new planning application to be submitted in the latter half of next year, and be approved by 2011.

But if construction work started in 2012, it would not be completed until 2014 at the earliest, he said.

He said he did not know if the development would be able to go ahead without John Lewis.

He added: “Whether the Liberty group would want to make that investment, I cannot tell. The uncertainty isn’t helpful and we want these talks to come to a conclusion.”

Mr Price said housing was now not expected to be included, but he pledged to spend £150,000 on the Westgate car park.

The report will be discussed by the council’s executive at a meeting on Wednesday December 2.

Jeremy Collins, head of retail development for John Lewis, said: “We remain committed to working with the council and Capital Shopping Centres to finding a sustainable solution for the Westgate project.”

No-one from Liberty International was available for comment.

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