A PIZZA restaurant has been given the go-ahead to re-model a £50m shopping centre only two years after it opened.

Pizza Express plans to extend the unit previously set aside for Starbucks at Marriotts Walk, Witney.

The unit will effectively double in size to create the restaurant, and The Buttercross Needle, the sculpture in the nearby square, may have to be moved.

Despite initial reservations, a planning committee of West Oxfordshire District Council gave the scheme its seal of approval.

Committee member Mark Booty said: “When I first saw this application I was concerned about what they were doing to Marriotts Walk.

“But all my worries have been allayed.

“It is a very good extension.”

Architecture firm Tectus, which is behind the design of the extension, said the unit was being increased by “the absolute minimum necessary”.

Unit Six is one of only two in the centre which remain unoccupied.

The district council has so far been unable to confirm whether it would be possible to move the Needle since the artist retains certain rights over it which include permission being sought before it is moved.

Some concerns were raised by Peter Handley, the only councillor to vote against the application, about the design and whether another restaurant was appropriate for the square.

The committee also expressed some concerns about how the development will be undertaken and conditions will be included to make sure it does not disrupt shoppers and begins after the Christmas shopping period.

The applicant, Marriotts Walk owner the Kandahar Group, has also said that the materials will match the development, that there will be no outdoor seating after 11.30pm and that it will include plants to stop people “lingering” in the recess the extension creates next to Marks & Spencers.