Didcot to get £900k for town improvements next year (From The Oxford Times)

Didcot to get £900k for town improvements next year

7:00am Wednesday 28th July 2010

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THE Government has confirmed Didcot will receive a £900,000 boost next year to fund infrastructure improvements and local people will decide how it is spent.

The announcement means work could finally start on improving the Cow Lane underpass, and comes as a series of other announcements suggest the town is, so far, avoiding the worst budget cuts.

Housing and local government minister Grant Shapps has confirmed the new Government will support the Growth Points programme, set up to provide infrastructure money for towns, like Didcot, which are set to expand massively to provide new homes.

Despite widespread Government cuts, South Oxfordshire District Council said it expected to receive £905,527 next year, and that it would be piloting a new project to encourage localism by asking Didcot residents how they wanted the money to be spent.

The town’s priorities will be discussed by Didcot Community Forum, set up by the council to keep local people involved in the town’s development, in September, and by a new Didcot Delivery Board, including business and community leaders, to be set up by the council.

The news comes as county councillors voted to go ahead with the £5.8m redevelopment of Didcot Parkway’s forecourt, while dozens of other capital projects around the county are being put on hold. Work is due to start on site by the end of the year.

Tomorrow, a small ceremony will mark the start of work on the first homes at Great Western Park.

District council leader Ann Ducker hailed the news as a “triple boost” for Didcot and said it showed Didcot’s economy was booming.

She said: “At long last, Didcot is really going to take off again. What is really good is that Ministers are realising Didcot is a really exciting project. We never really knew if the growth fund money was in doubt or not, and with all the uncertainty at the moment, it could have gone either way.

“The fact it is coming shows the new Government believes in Didcot as a growth area, and in the importance of infrastructure improvements, which is all part of the strategy.”

Meanwhile she said negotiations between the council and Orchard Centre developers Hammerson were continuing, and residents could expect further announcements by the winter.

She said: “We’ve crossed a watershed with the start on site of Great Western Park housing development which is giving confidence to Hammerson our retail partners that Didcot is the right place to invest in for the future. I am optimistic that we will see phase two of the town centre development being agreed in the coming months.”

Much of the new money could be spent on turning Cow Lane underpass into a two-way route under the railway, described by Mrs Ducker as a “vitally important” project.

She said: “Cow Lane is one of the big, big issues that people want resolved. We have been working with various groups in the area to try to unlock and we have been working with various groups and authorities to try to do that.”

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