Work on the long-awaited £70m Bicester town centre redevelopment is underway.

Building work on a 50,000 sq ft Sainsbury's supermarket, a seven-screen cinema, car parking and six shops and restaurants should be complete by the end of 2011.

A new civic building, which will house the library and Cherwell District Council's offices, is likely to be built afterwards by the local authority.

Norman Bolster, executive member for economic devel-opment and estates, said Bicester was bucking the current economic climate.

He said: "This has been a long time coming but we're now about to see this exciting project get underway.

"It's reassuring for Bicester that Sainsbury's, Stockdale Land and the district council have been able to work together to bring this exciting development forward."

Phase one of the construction work will see the River Bure diverted from the east of Manorsfield Road to the west.

The area by the river will be landscaped, a footpath and cycleway created on the west side of the road, and a roundabout built near the entrance to Hanover Gardens.

Initial work, which will also include moving cables under the road and creating a new bus station, is expected to take about nine months.

Phase two — building the three-storey shopping and leisure centre across Crown Walk and Bure Place car parks — is due to start next autumn and be finished by Christmas the following year.

More than 800 construction and retail jobs are expected to be created.

Jamie Cowen, Sainsbury's head of property development, said: "This exciting project has been a long-term objective for Sainsbury's and we are now hopeful of being able to start work early in the new year.

Plans have also been unveiled for a multi-million pound revamp of Abingdon's Abbey Shopping Centre and the town's Charter area.

The proposals include refurbishing the shopping centre, building a major supermarket with a 700-space car park, redeveloping the former Woolworths store and possibly a new hotel.

Vale of White Horse District Council owns the centre's freehold and has a long lease agreement with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP).

A price tag has not been put on the development, nor a timeframe, although one council source said it could take five years.