A plan to revitalise Banbury's Market Place and Parson's Street includes coloured paving, fibre-optic lights and a fountain.

Designers said the proposals drew on the town's historic past and included reminders of the original Banbury Cross and the first town hall.

Suggestions for the £1.5m facelift, including pedestrianising of the area, have been presented to Cherwell District Council's executive.

Landscape experts and lighting consultants have been paid £25,000 to draw up the scheme.

The main feature of the plan is a ribbon of coloured paving that follows the course of the Cuttle Brook -- a stream that ran down Parson's Street and through the Market Place. The 'stream' will be enhanced by fibre-optic lighting. Outside the HSBC Bank, near the site of Banbury's original town hall, there would be a raised circular platform for small drama or music events, which could be turned into a fountain at the press of a button.

The plan was drawn up by two local companies, Landscape Design Associates, of Worton Rectory Park, and DPA Lighting Consultants, of Clifton.

LDA's Neil Mattinson told councillors the plan would revitalise the area. He said: "It will be memorable but subtle. It will pick out the site of the old cross in coloured paving, and the line of the stream will be defined by blue granite or slate paving." The plan suggests turning the Castle Quay side of the Market Place into a 'coffee culture' zone with outside tables and chairs. Coloured paving will divide the market square into segments.

Lighting plays a major part in the scheme. Lights of varying intensity for different times of the day would pick out some of the buildings.

The fountain would have white and coloured lighting, and a roadway running though the area would be illuminated by light beams.

Councillors on the executive were worried about possible vandalism and the loss of car parking spaces in the town centre but agreed to ask Landscape Design Associates to carry out public consultation on the proposals.