WORK is expected to start on Bicester’s long-awaited £70m town centre redevelopment by the end of the year.

The revamped centre will include a new 60,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s supermarket, a six-screen cinema, library, shops and restaurants.

The plans will also see the town’s Crown Walk shopping arcade refurbished, and the mobility and Pop In centres relocated to the new development.

A large section of Wesley Lane will also be demolished and part of Franklins Yard Carpark will make way for the cinema.

Before building work can start, the course of the River Bure will have to moved to the opposite side of Manorsfield Road – where the bus station will also be temporarily located.

Construction of the supermarket and multi-storey car park can then begin.

The development will extend over three existing car parks — Crown Walk, Bure Place and Franklins Yard — covering up to six acres of land between Sheep Street and Manorsfield Road.

Norman Bolster, Cherwell District Council’s executive member for economic development and estates, said: “Until the bus station is moved we can’t get on the site to start work.

“We hope by the end of the year we will start moving the river.”

Negotiations are still ongoing between Sainsbury’s and the council - who are working in partnership on the scheme – to hammer out the finer points of contracts.

A full timetable for the development is expected to be announced this autumn.

Mr Bolster said: “It’s pretty amazing in the current financial climate, where money is almost impossible to get hold of, that this development is still going ahead and has not been shelved like other projects, including Oxford’s Westgate.

“Sainsbury’s and Cherwell District Council are both very committed to it.”

Bicester Chamber of Commerce president Ben Jackson said the development held the key to a sustainable and vibrant town centre.

He added: “It will send a really strong and positive message into the community at a time when it is most needed.”

bicester@oxfordmail.co.uk