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£6.7 Million Didcot Parkway Revamp
10 September 2012, 06:00
A major £6.7 million project to transform Didcot Parkway station's begun ahead of an expected increase in housing and jobs over the next 20 years.
The project will create a larger interchange with better access for pedestrians, motorists, buses and cyclists.
Clearance work has already taken place on site with a temporary car park created for use while existing parking areas are redeveloped.
Oxfordshire County Council's Deputy Leader Rodney Rose said: "Didcot Parkway is the gateway for Science Vale UK - an area that will achieve 16,000 new jobs and 14,000 new houses in the next 20 years, with 8,400 new jobs by 2015.
"The improvements will provide more space for the future growth in popularity of the station and help create a much nicer environment for passengers using different modes of transport to access the station."
Improvements include a larger taxi rank, disabled parking bay, secure cycle parking as well as better CCTV. The revamp should take around 15 months.
£5 million of the funding has come from the county council (of which £4m has come from developer contributions), £800,000 from South Oxfordshire District Council and a further £900,000 from the Government, which the district council has allocated to the scheme.