The news that £4.7m will be used to improve and rejuvenate the existing parts of Barton is good news for people living there.

It is easy to get excited about the council’s plans for the new Barton Park Estate and forget that the rest of the area needs investment too.

As East Oxford MP Andrew Smith says, the real challenge for those planning the new development is to make sure it brings benefits to those who already live in Barton.

Knitting together the old and the new is crucial to breathing new life into Oxford, otherwise communities will only end up more divided in the future.

With a further £11m also being set aside to improve Blackbird Leys, residents of the city can hopefully look forward to big improvements in the years to come.

More community facilities, new housing and strengthened infrastructure will benefit both areas immensely.

Let us just hope that, with all this investment being announced for parts of Oxford, the views of residents are taken into account.