A Banbury construction project designed to improve access to the railway station has won an award for reducing its environmental impact.

Milestone Infrastructure Limited, working on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council, was presented with a Green Apple Environment Gold award on Monday, November 18 by the Green Organisation.

The award recognised industry-leading carbon and cost reduction as part of designing and managing the Tramway Road improvements in Banbury.

The county council project involves building an alternative route linking Tramway Road with Station Approach Road and the Banbury Rail Station forecourt.

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The council says the the work, when finished, will improve access to the station – by improving the road layout and facilities such as new bus stops, cycleways and footways – and better connect southern Banbury and the town centre.

Work done to reduce the project’s emissions has saved the carbon equivalent of 230 return flights from London to Sydney, according to the council.

Councillor Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for infrastructure and development strategy, said: “As a council we declared a climate emergency in 2019. I am delighted that awards like this recognise the work being done at all levels in the council to put these values into practice.

“Working with partners like Milestone Infrastructure, we are taking steps to realise our aims to be a carbon neutral organisation by 2030.

"This is part of our wider ambition to have net-zero carbon emissions across the entire county by 2050.”

Artist impression of a new cycle lane (Image: Oxfordshire County Council) During the early stages of designing the Tramway Road improvements, the county council asked Milestone Infrastructure to carry out a carbon assessment.

Areas of special focus included disposing of waste, operating the site compound, undertaking earthworks and drainage work, and installing pavement, kerbs and footways.

Measures to reduce carbon were then explored, including using alternative drainage, minimising the extent of the site that was reconstructed at full depth and choosing different traffic management arrangements.

Identifying these carbon spend ‘hot spots’ and finding alternatives led to saving a total of 275 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent a 19 per cent reduction on the total carbon baseline for the project and more than £1.25 million.

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Richard Stonehouse, contracts manager at Milestone Infrastructure, said: “We are incredibly proud to have won a Green Apple Award, which underlines Milestone Infrastructure's commitment to creating safer, greener highways and is testament to the impact of Milestone's carbon tool.

“As we look for new ways to reduce emissions it is encouraging to see the huge carbon – and cost – savings that can be made by identifying carbon hotspots and finding lower-carbon alternatives.

“We're looking forward to working with Oxfordshire County Council to identify even more carbon saving opportunities on this project."