WESTGATE: Queen could give royal seal of approval with official opening - but who do you want?

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said he wants a high-profile Royal to cut the red ribbon at the complex, and would be 'delighted' if the Queen could visit the city to do so.

Mr Price said the new £440m centre, which will feature a new John Lewis, 100 new shops, 25 restaurants and a boutique cinema, was such a major development in the city centre that it would be fitting for it to win Royal approval.

Property company The Crown Estate – which manages properties owned by the monarch – and partner Land Securities form Westgate Oxford Alliance, which runs the shopping centre, and Mr Price believes this connection could make a Royal visit more likely.

The centre is due to open to shoppers on Tuesday, October 24 but Mr Price said he expected an official opening ceremony to be held in the spring of next year.

Mr Price said: "I would be delighted if the Queen came for the official opening in spring 2018.

"If the Queen could not attend then it could be Prince Charles or the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

"It would give the new Westgate Centre the status it deserves as a major new development in the city."

Mr Price said he would never forget the Queen's visit in May, 2006, to officially open Oxford Castle Quarter off New Road in the city centre on his last day as Lord Mayor.

Last year The Crown Estate and Land Securities bought Oxford Castle Quarter for £47m from the Trevor Osborne Property Group.

It is expected the official opening could attract a range of high profile guests, with figures such as the Lord Mayor, High Sheriff and Oxfordshire County Council chairman likely to attend and the possibility of celebrities from the city also being invited.

Lord Mayor Jean Fooks said she was being invited to attend a reception, lunch and speeches on October 24, the day the Westgate Centre opens to shoppers, and could greet a member of the Royal Family attending an official opening in the spring.

Mrs Fooks' first official engagement as Lord Mayor was to welcome Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on a visit to Oxford in May, when she joined them for a tour of the Covered Market.

The Lord Mayor added: "I was very pleased to welcome Prince Charles and Camilla to Oxford when they visited the Covered Market."

There are now less than two months until the Westgate Centre reopens and it is down to those involved in its development to approach Buckingham Palace about a royal guest opening the centre.

The Queen's representative in Oxfordshire is the county's Lord-Lieutenant Tim Stevenson.

He formally receives the Queen and other members of the Royal Family when they visit.

He is supported by Vice Lord-Lieutenant John Harwood.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "Engagements are normally announced on the Royal Family's website a month or two weeks before they happen."

There was no official opening ceremony for the old Westgate Centre, but there was plenty of Royal interest in its development.

When the Queen visited Oxford in May 1968 she was shown plans for the centre, which was built between 1970 and 1972.

Then, during a visit in March, 1976, she was able to see the completed shopping complex.

It was also visited by the Queen Mother when she arrived in Oxford to open the new central library next door to the centre in 1973.

She was welcomed by flag-waving children from St Ebbe's School.

She was full of praise for the library, which she described as 'magnificent in size and splendidly equipped for the requirements of the present day'.

The library is being refurbished as part of the revamp of the shopping centre.

Westgate Oxford Alliance declined to comment.