Retailers are queuing up to stake a claim in the £50m redevelopment of Didcot town centre.

A foundation ceremony marked the start of work on the new 16-acre Orchard Centre site in Didcot. From left, Robert Jackson MP; Ann Ducker, leader of South Oxfordshire District Council and Roger Bell, South Oxfordshire District Council chairman

Woolworths is the latest big name to join the Orchard Centre scheme with building work now finally under way and councillors are so confident it will be successful, they are predicting the second phase will start in the near future.

Other big names signed up for the 250,000 sq ft scheme include Argos, Greggs, Specsavers, and Sainsbury's and they are set to create hundreds of jobs between them.

Malcolm Pink, regional managing director of develolper Taylor Woodrow, said 70 per cent of the centre had been pre-let and he added there was "strong interest" for the remaining shops from houseware firms, chemists, shoe retailers and white goods retailers.

The main 'anchor' supermarket -- covering 69,260 sq ft floor space along with a new car park -- is expected to be built by September before being handed over to Sainsbury's for fitting out. It should be open for business by Christmas with the rest following by spring 2005. Planning applications for a £4.6m five-screen cinema and a controversial arts centre costing more than £6m -- to be built and paid for by the council -- are expected to be submitted shortly.

As the council's development partner, Taylor Woodrow is responsible for the construction of the supermarket and 29 other shops, and the district council for the cinema, arts centre as well as new homes on the mixed redevelopment along with offices and possibly a dental centre.

The largest project ever to be undertaken by the district council has involved the demolition of a large swathe of the town centre between Broadway and the new Hitchcock Way next to the main London railway line.

John Food, cabinet member for Didcot, described it as "the culmination of 20 years of effort by past and present councillors and council officers, when many townspeople doubted whether the scheme would ever get off the ground".

Mike McNulty, leader of the Labour group on the district council said: "I believe that the overall Orchard Centre development will be so successful that within a short time of its completion, we will be under pressure to extend it with a phase two."