Thumbs up for Bicester's Town Centre Redevelopment

Plans to transform Bicester's town centre and provide new retail and leisure facilities have taken a major step forward as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has authorised the making of the Compulsory Purchase Order necessary for the redevelopment.

At the same time, the Secretary of State for Transport has confirmed the order for the stopping up of Bure Place. As a result of these decisions, all remaining land and other rights needed for the redevelopment can be acquired without further delay.

The main building contractor has also recently been selected and work will shortly start on a number of on-site technical studies. Following completion of these studies the main redevelopment work will start early in the New Year. This will also ensure no disruption to town centre businesses over the forthcoming Christmas trading period.

Sainsbury's Regional Development Executive, Andrew Sanderson, said: "We are absolutely delighted that the Secretary of State has confirmed the Compulsory Purchase Order. This is great news for Bicester and means that we can now proceed with construction of the main town centre redevelopment.

"The redevelopment will transform Bicester and encourage more people to visit the town centre, through the creation of a range of new facilities; including a new cinema, Sainsbury's store, new retail and restaurant units, improved town centre car parking and a new bus interchange."

Councillor Norman Bolster, Cherwell District Council's lead member for economic development, said: "It has taken an enormous amount of hard work to get us to this point and I am very grateful to everyone involved. We can now start work on providing Bicester with a fantastic
facility, which will have a better shopping and leisure offer and attract more people, benefitting all the traders in the town centre.

"Bringing the town centre redevelopment together has been an extremely complicated process and I know people have been frustrated that it has taken so long to reach this stage but the Secretary of State's announcement means that we can push ahead with this much-needed development."


The Chamber looks forward to working with and building on the existing relationship with the developer and Sainsbury to work towards the best outcome for Bicester.