A secret report into whether Didcot's Orchard Centre should be extended to create a super retail and recreation park was due to be debated by councillors tomorrow.

Options about what to do with land to the east of the development could include bigger shops and housing.

South Oxfordshire district councillors will decide by September whether to go ahead with phase two of the development.

Council chief executive David Buckle said: "We're in the throes of discussion with Hammerson, which owns the Orchard Centre, so the report has to be confidential.

"We are talking about whether we want to take phase two forward, according to the allocation in the local plan.

"One of the things we have to ask is whether there is sufficient demand to justify it.

"The units remaining in the Orchard Centre are small and therefore difficult to let.

"If we move forward to phase two we will need to get a certain percentage of the units pre-sold before we go ahead."

When the first phase of the Orchard Centre began, many shops and businesses were demolished under compulsory purchase orders by the council.

Most of the land earmarked for phase two is currently used for garages and warehouses.

Town council leader John Flood said: "I think phase two is absolutely the right thing to do.

"I would like to see a mixture of shops and recreational facilities on the site - like a 10-pin bowling alley to keep the young people happy and full length indoor bowls for more mature people. That would be an ideal combination."

He said the report had to be secret because the district council is in the process of tendering for contractors.

Hammerson director Andrew Berger-North said: "It's a very exciting prospect. At the moment the site has a structure plan allocation for retail, leisure and residential and it is likely to include apartments and possibly a hotel.

"We are still in talks with the council and a decision is likely to be made this week.

"Discussions are going on with other retailers to fill the existing units and we are just starting a new marketing campaign this week.

"We have just signed a contract with fashion retailers, M & Co.

"If we didn't think there was demand for these units we wouldn't be doing it."