MORE than £80m of investment could be ploughed into Didcot's roads and railway station if a bid for cash from the Government succeeds.

Transport bosses say the improvements will be vital as the town's "garden" status brings in 15,000 new homes and 20,000 high-tech jobs over the next 15 years.

They are bidding for £47m towards the £90m first phase of Didcot Parkway Station's expansion, £29m towards the proposed £43m Science Bridge over the railway and £6.2m towards the £12.5m extension of the northern perimeter road.

Didcot Mayor Steve Connel said welcomed the bids, adding they were "vital" to compensate for the town's rapid growth.

He said: "Over the years Didcot has been a place that has never been thought of as much as areas like Abingdon and Henley, but it has now become the place everyone is talking about and where everyone wants to live and work.

"We are growing at a phenomenal rate, so we need to make sure the investment in homes is matched with investment in infrastructure.

"You cannot get expanding as quickly as we are without providing better ways for people to get around, doctors surgeries and new schools, so I think this could be a great thing.

"I would not say we had been let down in the past, but what we need to see now is rapid investment on schemes that are effective."

The £175m expansion of Didcot Parkway would see the site become a "strategic transport hub".

Documents seen by the Herald say it would see a three-storey building with a "modern glass facade" built, which would also include cafes, shops, a ticket office and toilets.

There would also be a new north station entrance hall to improve access from Cow Lane.

Meanwhile, the £43m Science Bridge has been proposed to help ease congestion between the power station and Milton Park.

It would cross the A4130, as well as a new link road and rail line, to take congestion from the roundabout at the entrance to Didcot A power station, where a new development is also proposed.

The £12.5m controversial plan to extend the northern perimeter road would add a new stretch of highway from the eastern end, the A4130, to Hadden Hill road to the south.

The funding bid submitted to the Government's local growth fund says: "Housing growth and employment growth in the garden town will be intimately linked with 20,000 new high-tech jobs created over the next 15 years on the Harwell, Milton Park and Didcot Growth Accelerator Enterprise Zones and other smaller sites.

"Underpinning investment in the Didcot Garden Town will need to be supported by significant infrastructure investment."