MORE than £300m worth of transport improvements could be made to cope with housing near Didcot and in West Oxfordshire but a £152m bid to support thousands of homes north of Oxford has been rejected by Government officials.

The county's £171m bid to improve the roads around the 22,000-home Didcot Garden Town and a £135m scheme to upgrade the A40 ahead of a proposed garden village near Eynsham have been selected by the Government for further assessment.

But a third bid for £152m to support more than 5,000 homes north of the city – in Begbroke, Yarnton, Kidlington and Woodstock – has been binned by Government officials.

The money would have upgraded the A44 and A4260 corridors, built a new Park and Ride at Oxford Airport and provided more cycling infrastructure as well as leaving cash for new schools.

The funding would be in addition to the £215m housing and growth deal – which commits the county to building 100,000 homes by 2031 – set to be officially signed off by housing minister Dominic Raab when he visits Bicester today.

Mr Raab admitted that was 'well in excess' of the housing numbers required but welcomed the move by the 'ambitious' local authorities in Oxfordshire.

The Government will make a final decision in the autumn on whether the bids for Didcot and West Oxfordshire are ultimately successful, but council leaders were optimistic.

Oxfordshire County Council leader, Ian Hudspeth, said: "The Government is showing it is rightly confident that Oxfordshire can deliver new homes and jobs while sticking to the principles of sustainable development.

"This is a big boost for Oxfordshire and underlines our commitment to ensuring that the infrastructure is in place to support new homes."

The Government's housing infrastructure fund was recently doubled to £5bn as part of a comprehensive programme to 'fix the broken housing market'.

It has now revealed that 44 schemes – each capped at £250m – will move to the next stage and be developed with the help of Government officials.

One of those bids is for £135m to upgrade the A40, developing a rapid transit network to increase capacity on the frequently-congested road.

James Mills, leader of West Oxfordshire District Council, said it would facilitate the proposed garden village near Eynsham and was a positive step towards the 'urgent need' to upgrade the A40.

He said: "West Oxfordshire’s proposed garden village near Eynsham would be a major contribution towards meeting our current housing demands as it would provide much-needed homes in a high quality and sustainable environment.

"It is boosting our case for improvements to transport links and in particular the urgent need to upgrade the A40.

"I am delighted that we are now closer to gaining Government investment through the Housing Infrastructure Fund."

The other county scheme to progress to the next stage would see £171m worth of improvements to support more than 22,000 homes in Didcot, Culham, Harwell and Berinsfield.

A new 'science bridge' linking Didcot to Milton Park, a river crossing at Culham and Clifton Hampden Bypass and up to £70m of cycle and sustainable transport improvements would be included in the scheme.

South Oxfordshire District Council leader, John Cotton, said: "We are delighted to see continued commitment to supporting South Oxfordshire housing growth from the Government.

"I am serious – and so is the Growth Board – about ensuring the county's residents get the infrastructure they need to maintain and improve the quality of life in Oxfordshire as a whole, and this news is a great example of how we're going about doing that."

Oxfordshire Growth Board has also revealed the first year programme for the five-year £215m Government housing and growth deal with improvements to Botley Road, the corridor north of Oxford and Access to Headington being prioritised.

Just 414 homes will be built in the first year – which begins on April 1 – with the focus instead being put on transport.

There will be £3.25m for a Botley Road corridor project – to give buses priority, improve cycle provision and fix the road surface – and £500,000 will be put towards a study to widen Botley Road rail bridge to facilitate the Oxford Station development and create more rail lines.

Work to explore a congestion-free westbound bus lane on the A40 to the proposed Eynsham Park-and-Ride will also receiving funding in 2018/19 and a total of £16.5m over the five years.

The ‘south east Oxford’ corridor – Abingdon Road, Cowley Road and Iffley Road – will also undergo a £300,000 study.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) however has criticised the deal as ‘derisory and damaging’ and said the housing numbers were too high.

CPRE Oxon director, Helen Marshall, said the housing needed in the county was closer to 60,000 and urged local authorities to reject the deal.

She said: “In return for providing 40,000 houses Oxfordshire doesn’t need, we get a fraction of the money required to provide infrastructure for them.

“Our local councils should do the honourable thing, reject the deal and cut housing targets to reflect Oxfordshire’s actual need.

“This would mean they could also abandon the ill-conceived schemes between Oxford and Kidlington, at Culham and Chalgrove."