THE ground was broken yesterday for the new £80m retail park planned for near junction 11 of the M40.

Banbury MP Sir Tony Baldry attended the official ceremony for the Banbury Gateway project yesterday and hailed it was a “fantastic” move forward for the town.

The development will go on the site of motorsport firm ProDrive and will include top retailers Marks & Spencer, River Island, Arcadia and Primark.

The Acorn Way, Wildmere Industrial Estate development will also include restaurants. The plan will create 1,000 full-time and 225 part-time retail jobs, developers said.

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Bosses from LxB Properties and McLaren Construction expect work to finish by next summer for Christmas opening.

They said 90 per cent of its units have been let at the development, approved by Cherwell District Council in 2012 after a court battle.

Conservative MP Sir Tony said: “This is a fantastic further development which builds on Banbury’s geographical location and its one of the reasons why we now have unemployment significantly below one per cent.”

Principal of LxB Properties Jon McCarthy said: “We are delighted to be able to start on site building this new exciting retail scheme.”

The firm is taking forward the scheme for the Crown Estate, which has bought and is funding the development.

Project Manager for construction firm McLaren John Maley said businesses will be built in three clusters.

He said: “Were building Marks & Spencer, River Island, Arcadia and Primark first so they’ll be completed and handed over first.

“And then the final phase will be to complete the car park. The project is due to be completed during September next year.”

ProDrive is still trading from part of the development site and will move to new premises in a field by the M40 in March. The development has raised concerns among some town centre traders that it will pull trade from Banbury. Owners of Banbury Cross Retail Park and the Castle Quay shopping centre lost a High Court battle to halt the plan last December.

 

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