Businesses in Oxford will learn this month if work to repave Cornmarket can be finished before Christmas.

In July, council leaders shocked businesses by warning them that work might not be finished until at least February.

They had been promised that the £3.2m project would be finished by the end of October, but the discovery of underground cellars and a complex network of utility company cables pushed back the timetable.

Traders were told that if work was not completed by then, builders would be told to down tools and come back in February so that Christmas shopping and January sales were not disrupted.

David Robertson, the county council's executive member for transport, said traders would be told at a meeting in the Town Hall on September 30 if the repaving could be completed before Christmas.

He said: "Complex work near the junction of Ship Street has now been completed and the straight sections of the street should take less time to complete.

"From now on, I think we will start to see major progress by the end of each working week.

"One option we have is to bring in extra paving gangs."

Two-thirds of traders in Cornmarket have asked the Government to review their rateable values, due to a loss of business.

Traders' spokesman Graham Jones, of Rox (Rescue Oxford), warned: "I think traders would prefer to see the paving work completed before Christmas if possible, but not if it drags on into the Christmas shopping period because they need a chance to recover in terms of sales."

The summit with traders will be held at 12.30pm on September 30.

The repaving scheme is a joint project between the city and county council.

The county, as highways authority, is in charge of the contract, but the majority of funding is being provided by the city.

The first scheme to repave the street with granite was abandoned last year and an asphalt surface will now be laid.