TRADERS have demanded improvements to a shopping precinct which they say is essential to compete with the £70m redevelopment of Bicester town centre.

Businesses in one half of Crown Walk say they are fed up looking at empty units and claim the areas has become a “ghost town”.

Butchers Regent’s Meats closed at the end of last year, hair salon Andrea and Achille closed in January 2011 and Cafe Little Italy closed in March 2011. A sweet shop and former bakery and cafe the Oven Door have been empty for several years.

Sainsbury’s and Cherwell District Council hope to start work this autumn to build a supermarket, shops, car park, cinema and bus interchange over Bure Place and Crown Walk car parks.

Lynn Wright, of Market Square’s Bicester Beds, which has an entrance in Crown Walk, said: “Sainsbury’s hold the key to the future of Bicester town centre. The whole of Crown Walk is dead. If you stand at the Market Square entrance you wouldn’t want to walk down there.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said it was actively looking for new occupiers for Crown Walk, which would benefit “hugely” from the town centre redevelopment.

He added: “We are also working on various initiatives to make Crown Walk more attractive to shoppers and to better promote it.”