RESIDENTS have criticised a £60m development they claim will destroy community facilities and overshadow their homes.

Speaking before a decision tonight over plans to revamp the area opposite Didcot Parkway station, moving a nursery school and demolishing a pub, Penny Dakin Kiley said: “We want to see the site improved, but not in a way that destroys existing community facilities and replaces them with high-rise blocks.”

The web editor, who lives in Lydalls Road, added: “There is strong feeling in the town that demolishing the Prince of Wales pub would be a huge loss, and that any new development should reflect Didcot’s heritage as a railway town.

“Forcing the nursery school to move is a backwards step too.

“The scale and mass of the buildings is a big issue for residents – an eight-storey hotel opposite two-storey houses is completely out of place.”

South Oxfordshire District Council and the government’s Homes and Communities Agency have been planning the revamp of the area for years.

The council’s planning committee is being recommended to approve the scheme at a meeting tonight at Didcot Civic Hall.

Ms Dakin Kiley, of Local Voice for Didcot Gateway, said people would continue to lobby for changes once the application moved forward.

District council leader John Cotton said: “The whole thrust of this project is creating a better link with the town centre.”

He said once outline planning permission was approved it would provide a “better focus for negotiations” with a number of different landowners, including the owners of the Prince of Wales pub.

He said some owners were asking “big prices” for land on the Gateway site and how much the council agreed to pay could dictate whether any affordable housing would be provided among 300 new homes.

The scheme also involves a 70-bed hotel, a gym and a multi-storey car park.

The future location of the county council-run nursery in Lydalls Road has not yet been agreed.

Mr Cotton said: “ Oxfordshire County Council is the landowner of the nursery site, so without a deal between the two councils we will not be able to move forward.

“I will be meeting county council leader Ian Hudspeth this week, and the nursery will be on the agenda.”

Mr Cotton said if outline planning permission was granted he did not expect work to begin on site until late 2017 or early 2018.