PUPILS stood side by side with developers to mark the ground-breaking ceremony of the third warehouse being built at Symmetry Park in Bicester.

The first spade hit the ground for construction on the next phase of works, at the park off the A41, at a celebratory event on Tuesday.

Students from Bicester Technology Studio were invited along to mark the latest milestone, alongside local dignitaries, as contractor A&H Construction commenced work.

It comes after one warehouse has already been built on the site and is 88,000sq ft in size, and rented out to a national furniture designer, manufacturer and supplier Bentley Designs which moved from Greenford in West London.

The second warehouse to be built was 110,000sq ft and completed in December before being sold to pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor Medline Services.

The latest warehouse which work started on this week will be double the size of the first warehouse at 163,130sq ft and is expected to be complete by March 2019.

Owners of the sight db Symmetery said there is already a 'strong interest' from local and regional businesses.

Once complete, the specialist logistics developer says the entire development is expected to generate an additional 800-900 jobs across a range of roles such as technicians, designers and managers.

db Symmetry development director Tom Leeming said: “Our decision to develop speculatively here at Bicester underlines the strength of demand we are seeing from occupiers who want to operate a successful business in this location.

"With the success of Phase 1 bringing two new businesses to the town along with the associated new jobs, we look forward to welcoming others in the coming months.

"The Park presents a professional, well planned entrance to Bicester on the A41 showing the town to be open for business.

"We would like to extend our thanks to the Studio, Bicester Vision, the Council and the people of Bicester for their continued support in bringing this business park forward."

The original plans submitted by Warren Reid for multiple warehouses covering 675,000sq ft of farmland were approved in October 2016.

An application, from db Symmetry (Bicester Reid) Ltd, was then put before councillors in May for the third warehouse on the site, which are expected to include five warehouses off the A41.

It is a site that forms part of an area in the Local Plan set aside for creating jobs to support Bicester’s massive growth.

As part of the works developers db Symmetry has been working in partnership with Bicester Technology Studio to provide on-site tours and show construction techniques to help aid their studies.

It also hopes to supply apprenticeship opportunities for the students once complete.

The entire site is also expected to have more than 400 car parking spaces once complete, plus some 150 cycle stands.

Alongside those spaces, the site is also expected to have a number of HGV parking areas adding up to some 80 spaces in total.

For more details see dbsymmetry.com/bicester