LONDON retailers want to create new public spaces along Oxford Street and widen the pavements to make it feel like a “boulevard”, as part of their plans to rivitalise the capital’s major shopping district.

The ideas, which are to be made public today as part of a week-long consultation process, aim to improve London’s profile as an international shopping destination.

Proposals to transform Marble Arch into a new square and create other features forming “gateways” into the main shopping streets are designed to make the area more relaxing and inviting.

Other ideas include cutting back the number of bus routes running along Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street from 24 to 2, adding taxi ranks and creating new lighting schemes.

Gary Reeves, chief executive of The New West End Company, an organisation that represents the interests ofretailers including Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Selfridges, said that it was hoped some of the ideas could be implemented before the 2012 Olympics.

The proposals are the result of a two-year project in which shoppers and local businesses were canvassed on their views.

However talks with Transport for London and Westminster Council have only just begun on how the development ideas might be funded and implemented. Some observers questioned how far-reaching the changes might be.

The ideas follow a £70 million investment programme in the West End unveiled by Westminster Council this month and the setting up of a working party by the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, to push through redevelopment of the Oxford Street area amid fears that the London economy is suffering from a downturn in visitor numbers since the July 7 bombings.

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