BIG-NAME brands and a series of attractions including a beach and an F1 simulator are among plans to bring more shoppers back to Cowley’s Templars Square shopping centre.

Bonmarche opens on June 16, while Game is coming “imminently” and recruiting up to seven staff.

Activities to pull in punters include a simulated F1 car with racing car video game challenge to mark Father’s Day on June 21.

Next month London Welsh players will take part in a 24-hour cyclathon to raise money for charity, while in August a whole section of the centre will be transformed into a beach.

Centre manager Paul Bentham said: “By the end of summer, we will be 100 per cent let.”

Mr Bentham, who took over nine months ago, said the 50-year-old mall is experiencing a new lease of life.

He added: “We know not everybody can get away to the seaside, so we will bring the seaside to the centre.

“Kids can take off their shoes and socks and feel the sand between their toes.”

Despite the Westgate shopping centre’s £440m redevelopment in the city centre, Mr Bentham is not worried about competition.

He said: “It won’t affect us because the Westgate, and the Clarendon Centre are targeting a different market.

“We are a very focused shopping centre, in that all our stores are aimed at people who are watching their budget, so we are not in competition with them at all.”

In nine months, he has slashed costs by tens of thousands and is boosting visitor numbers by pulling in shoppers from a wider area, including Banbury and Didcot.

The centre already has many High Street names, including Dorothy Perkins, New Look, WH Smith and Boots.

Even with 12 years’ experience of running shopping centres, Mr Bentham said he was daunted at the task ahead.

He said: “It was quite dismaying, when I first arrived.

“For the previous four-and-a-half years, footfall had been falling by 10 per cent month-on-month and year-on-year.

“Our strategy seems to be working, as it is no longer 10 per cent down and has moved into plus figures each week.

“We have stopped the rot and are looking to push that up.”

Two-thirds of shoppers are under 35, with the rest over 55, meaning the 35-55 age band, who are most likely to have young children, are missing.

Mr Bentham said he hoped to lure them in with the beach and a Halloween Trick or Treat event in October. Other plans include extended shopping hours.

He added: “We haven’t ever done a late night or opened on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day for the sales but we’re talking about opening on New Year’s Day 2016.”