PEOPLE living in Didcot have vowed to continue to fight £60m plans for the redevelopment of land opposite the town’s railway station.

Residents in the Lydalls Road area say the scheme, featuring an eight-storey hotel and 300 new homes, is too big and would overshadow their houses.

South Oxfordshire District Council and the government’s Homes and Communities Agency have been planning the Didcot Gateway revamp for several years Residents are also opposing the proposed loss of the Prince of Wales pub in Station Road and the relocation of Lydalls Road nursery, which is run by the county council.

An outline application for the scheme was backed by SODC councillors at a planning committee meeting on Wednesdayand the council will now seek a developer to take the plans forward.

David Heard, 65, a former data systems manager from Lydalls Road, said: “I think the development is far too big and will overshadow all the local houses.

“The Prince of Wales pub is very well used. It’s always full and I hope residents will fight to keep it.

“If the whole area opposite the station is developed then people might not bother to go into the town centre.”

Penny Dakin Kiley, of Local Voice for Didcot Gateway, said the group would lobby for changes to the plans.

She added: “Like most people in Didcot, we want to see the site improved, but not in a way that destroys existing community facilities and replaces them with high-rise blocks.

“Revised plans revealed in December showed the buildings will now be larger than in the original plans, including a five-storey car park over 13 metres high at the bottom of the Station Road conservation area.

“We’ve always felt the planners were trying to fit too much into a small space and that the plans were not really deliverable.

“There is a lot of talk now about a vision for Didcot as a garden town and we would like to see a Gateway development that has some real vision. We are not giving up.”

Jonathan Hawkins, 58, who lives in Lydalls Road and runs an electronics business, said he was disappointed the application was approved.

He added: “The Gateway scheme will open up residential streets including Lydalls Road, King Alfred Road and Edinburgh Road as a thoroughfare to the main part of Didcot.”

Former power station worker Fred Excell, 82, of Park Close, said: “They should be able to incorporate the pub and the nursery into the plans.”

Labour town councillor Margaret Davies said residents needed more reassurance about how parking would be affected and that room should be made for a pub.

She said: “There should have been a proper masterplan for the site at an earlier stage and I think the process so far has been flawed.”

South Oxfordshire District Council leader John Cotton said earlier he did not expect work to begin on site until late 2017 or early 2018.