To achieve a balanced community it is important that the West End regeneration is not dominated by any single land use. New housing is vital, but the opportunity must be taken to provide additional space for business growth, to enhance retail opportunities and to provide new leisure, community and tourist facilities. The West End needs to attract visitors, employees and businesses. New attractions and community facilities will ensure the area enhances Oxford's attractiveness to residents and visitors alike. Please click on the links below to find out more:

• Creating Activity and a Mix of Uses
• Office Accommodation
• Retail
• Cultural Activity
• Visitor Coaches
• Hotel and Conference Facility
• Leisure
• Education

Creating Activity and a Mix of Uses
It is important to encourage activity at street level to help achieve the vibrancy that is desired in the West End. Street level activity can be encouraged through the design of the buildings by, amongst other things, introducing windows and doors at street level. In addition, a development or building that contains a variety of uses is much more likely to create street level activity throughout the day and evening than one which is single-use only.

Office Accommodation
The City centre is an excellent location for new offices, being accessible for staff and visitors by walking, cycling and public transport. Offices will help to create a mixed-use area, and will bring important day-time activity to the West End. Apart from the Oxford Business Park, there are relatively few modern office developments in Oxford, and good-quality modern office space is in demand. The West End offers a rare opportunity to provide some new office accommodation, in modern and flexible spaces. Planning permission may therefore be sought for up to 15,000m2 of additional office floor space in the West End, to help meet this demand.

Retail
The West End already includes several of Oxford's key shopping streets. A Retail Needs Study has identified a need for Oxford to expand its retail facilities, partly via a redeveloped  Westgate Shopping Centre, which would enhance Oxford's retail offer and provide employment in the retail and construction sectors. In addition, new local stores will be needed to support any new housing and it it is expected that new cultural attractions such as galleries and museums will have ancillary retail space.

Cultural Activity
Increasing the variety of stimulating attractions for visitors and local residents is a key objective of the West End regeneration. Facilities that add diversity to the cultural scene, including cultural attractions and events, festivals, and cultural employment uses such as artists' studios and exhibition areas will be encouraged in the appropriate locations. Studios, workspaces and galleries would assist people in creative professions to stay in Oxford. In addition, these kinds of uses at ground level encourage day and evening activity, helping to enliven the street scene.

Two exciting new cultural attractions are taking shape in the heart of the West End: Science Oxford's new cultural centre for science and enterprise on New Road, and the Story Museum for children's literature on Pembroke Street. The £30 million Science Oxford scheme, which will be based on the disused Macclesfield House site next to the Oxford Castle quarter, will offer flexible exhibition space and an immersive theatre. The Story Museum, to be based in a refurbished Rochester House, will draw on the rich heritage of children's storytelling in Oxford, and feature exhibitions, audio-visual presentations and unique archives. Both schemes will help to bring much-needed daytime activity and economic benefits to the West End, in keeping with the aims of the regeneration.

The Old Fire Station redevelopment was completed in 2011 and is now running as a high quality community resource, combining arts and social enterprise. Refurbished and redesigned throughout, the development has also enhanced the area between the bus station and Gloucester Green Square. Likewise, the proposed redevelopment of the nearby cinema on George Street would not only improve facilities for film-goers; it would also improve the entrance to the Square and create more street level activity along the George Street and Gloucester Green frontages.

Visitor Coaches
Oxford is a world-renowned tourist destination, and is the sixth most visited city in the UK by international visitors. It is estimated that 32% of Oxford's visitors travel by coach. Arrangements for coach arrivals to the Oxpens site are not welcoming or convenient for the visitor or for residents and other users of the city centre, with unsatisfactory drop-off and standing procedures. Coaches do not need to park in the city centre, although they would need facilities to drop-off and pick-up passengers safely in places from where they can easily get into the historic core. If a drop-off and pick-up point was established to welcome tourists to the city centre and offer visitor information, coaches could then park at a park-and-ride site such as Redbridge.

Hotel and Conference Facility
While the quantity and quality of hotel accommodation in Oxford has increased in the past few years, much of it is out-of-town and there remains very little on offer in the city centre. In particular the lack of mid-range and quality branded hotels has been highlighted; the popularity of the Malmaison Hotel at the Castle suggests a strong demand. In addition, the demand for conference facilities exceeds supply by around 40%. The Oxpens site has been identified as an area that could help meet this shortfall by combining a new hotel with a conference/performance venue.

Leisure
The main leisure attraction in the West End is the ice rink, which is run by Oxford City Council. The council invested £700,000 in late 2010 on a programme of improvements, which saw the installation of a new refrigeration unit, rink barrier, boiler and upgrades to the ceiling and change facilities.

Education
New housing development in the West End will inevitably lead to increased demand on local education facilities. Work is continuing to establish the level of need for additional facilities in the West End and the wider area. Developer contributions (as required by residential developers) incorporate an element of funding towards meeting the additional need created.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College is located in the heart of the West End and intends to remain on the site. The college hopes to redevelop their campus providing modern facilities to better meet the needs of their students. This will likely involve some redevelopment but on a smaller site than at present, freeing up parts of the site for other uses.

Oxford University has a significant interest in the West End with several colleges and teaching facilities located in the area. There may be opportunities to extend these uses within the West End.

Read more about the West End's key projects...