RESIDENTS were out in force to view the latest plans for an ambitious £60m regeneration of a Cowley shopping centre.

NewRiver held the first of two public sessions on plans to transform the Templars Square shopping centre yesterday afternoon.

A planning application has already been submitted to Oxford City Council which would see 225 new homes, a new 71-bed hotel and the demolition of Castle car park.

Nearly 100 people had already turned out to see the new designs and watch a flyover video detailing how the new centre would look when Oxford Mail visited the exhibition around 1.30pm.

Allan Lockhart, Property Director at NewRiver, said: “NewRiver were delighted to discuss exciting proposals for the redevelopment of Templars Square with local residents at the shopping centre on Friday.

“We had positive conversations with the local community demonstrating the level of support for the scheme and were able to answer specific queries from individual members of the community.

“We very much hope that residents will come to see us again today to continue to talk to us about this opportunity for Cowley”.

Some residents still maintained that concerns were not being addressed, however.

Andrew Bailey, 38, who lives at Barns Road warned that whatever the developers did the traffic was only set to get worse.

He said: “While I think the centre could use a face lift I don’t want more cars clogging up the roads around here.

“It is already really busy at the worst of times and I can only see it getting worse. I would not support it .”

Another public exhibition will be held today between 10am and 4pm inside the centre and the NewRiver will be on hand to answer questions.