SHOPPERS heading to Oxford's Westgate Centre today for Black Friday are being urged to use public transport including the park-and-rides to help avoid traffic chaos.

And centre managers at designer shopping outlet Bicester Village said they were confident of avoiding the mayhem which gridlocked roads in 2014 – despite the centre now being almost a fifth bigger than before.

Black Friday, an import from the United States, is a day of discounts in the run-up to Christmas, and can attract thousands of extra shoppers.

Oxfordshire County Council said it was not putting in place any special measures today to cope with a surge.

Spokesman, Paul Smith, said: "We are not anticipating any problems on the roads relating to retail sales but the advice is the same regardless of the time of year.

"We always recommend that people plan their journeys, listen to the local radio travel news and wherever possible use public transport or the park and ride."

Managers at the new £440m Westgate Centre, which opened a month ago today, also said they were not expecting traffic hold-ups envisage any traffic disruption.

Belgian chocolate firm Godiva will open a new store at the centre today.

Centre manager, Brendan Hattam, said: "We don’t envisage any travel disruption as a result of Black Friday.

"As always, we would encourage those travelling into the city centre to visit Westgate Oxford to plan ahead, using our website’s journey planner, which provides access to live updates on car park capacity, bus timetables and park an ride information.

"Various brands will be taking part in Black Friday this year and details of these offers can be found on our website."

For the past two years Bicester has managed to avoid a repeat of the mayhem on Black Friday in 2014, when the town's roads were gridlocked and cars abandoned on grass verges by shoppers heading to Bicester Village.

This year, as in 2015 and 2016, Bicester Village is not officially taking part in Black Friday promotions.

That decision, along with improvements to the roads network as part of last month's expansion, have led to confidence the day will pass smoothly.

Mayor of Bicester, Les Sibley, said: "Online shopping will have a big part to play, it will help in terms of traffic and road networks, the park and ride, and rail congestion.

"The improvements to road networks and transport links have been completed, and the train station has come a long way.

"Hopefully there are enough measures in place to make it enjoyable for the shoppers and safe for local residents."

Last month 30 new boutiques opened at Bicester Village, increasing its size by about a fifth.

The expansion included 450 new parking spaces and access to the shopping outlet was improved by widening the junction at Pingle Drive, to include two lanes heading in as well as two heading out.

A traffic-light 'tear-drop' junction was also built, with a hamburger-style roundabout further along the A41.

Sallie Wright, of Bicester Traffic Action Group, said: "There's the usual traffic management system in place for Black Friday as there are on weekends, such as cones on roads including Kings Avenue and Middleton Stoney Road."

A Bicester Village spokeswoman said: "Bicester Village does not take part in Black Friday.

"We always expect this period to be busy as people begin their Christmas shopping.

"We have therefore taken our usual measures, including additional off-site car parking, and we encourage all our guests to take advantage of the later shopping hours to avoid peak times."