Cost of roads project rose by £28m after rejection

Costs of a major transport infrastructure project rose by about £28m after councillors rejected it.

Local government minister Matthew Pennycook approved the £332m HIF1 (Housing Infrastructure Fund 1) plan for Didcot and surrounding areas last week after a public inquiry.

Oxfordshire County Council's planning committee rejected the project in July 2023, against the advice of the authority's officers.

Work will include making part of the A4130 a dual carriageway from the Milton Interchange towards Didcot, two new bridges will be built and Clifton Hampden will get a new bypass.

The council expects construction to start in early 2026 and last for about two years.

Its cabinet member for finance Dan Levy said the costs to the authority would be limited because the "overwhelming majority" of them will be picked up by government agency Homes England as funders of the scheme.

But he was accused by Conservative councillor David Bartholomew of being "remarkably relaxed" about the increased costs during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

"There is no point getting unrelaxed over things you have no control over," Mr Levy said.

"Any public money being spent unnecessarily is a bad thing."

He said the council's planning committee was "perfectly entitled" to reject the scheme, as the then local government secretary Michael Gove was when he said he wanted the decision reviewed a week later.

Mr Levy said the inflationary increase of construction work due to the delay in starting HIF1 is thought to be about 15%, which equates to about £28m.

The cost of the public inquiry and another inquiry into compulsory purchase orders is thought to be about £1m but the latter would have always needed to take place.

As part of the work, a new Didcot Science Bridge and road will connect the A4130 to the Collett Roundabout through the former Didcot A Power Station site.

A new Didcot to Culham road bridge will also be built between the A4130 and A415.

The UK Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA), which is based at Culham Campus, said last year that the successful delivery of HIF1 was "pivotal" to its work.

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