The multi-million-pound scheme to regenerate a quarter of central Oxford will create a new community in the heart of the city.o A West End Area Action Plan, setting out how Oxford's West End would be developed from "an under-utilised backwater" into a vibrant redeveloped area, moved forward this week with a detailed planning timetable.

Oxford City Council leader Alex Hollingsworth said housing would form the key element of the massive redevelopment, which will stretch from the railway station to St Aldates, and from the Thames north to Hythe Bridge Street. He said the creation of about 1,200 homes plus shops would represent a sizeable and entirely new Oxford community.

The people of Oxford can have their say on the plans in July. Oxford and Cherwell Valley College is moving ahead with plans for new buildings on its Oxpens site to create a modern outward facing college. It also now looks increasingly likely that Oxford Ice Rink will be demolished and replaced by a new ice skating attraction.

The redevelopment plan would include the creation of up to four public squares along a tree-lined Oxpens boulevard and there are proposals for a new council building in Oxpens, to be the shared headquarters of Oxfordshire County Council and the city council.

Mr Hollingsworth said: "The castle site is nearly completed. A planning application is about to be submitted for the Westgate. I think things are moving quickly.

"We have moved beyond the vision to the detailed planning process."

The preferred options will go before the the city council's Central, South and West Area Committee in June before going to the council's executive.