ALMOST six years after plans to redevelop Bicester’s town centre were first mooted, work has finally begun.

This week trees in Bure Place car park were cut down to make way for contractors to begin moving the River Bure from one side of the road to the other.

Its concrete banks will go and the land alongside will be landscaped with a new footpath and cycleway on the west side of the road and a roundabout near the entra-nce to Hanover Gardens.

The work is the start of a two-year £70m project to transform the heart of the town.

A seven-screen cinema, a Sainsbury’s supermarket, new retail and restaurant units, a new bus interchange, and 566-space car park will be built across Crown Walk and Bure Place car parks.

Work to move the river is expected to start this month.

Norman Bolster, Cherwell District Council’s executive member for economic development, said: “The redevelopment of the town centre has been something we have been working hard to achieve for a long time.

“It’s great news to have started.

“The development promises to significantly improve the attraction and vitality of Bicester.”

As part of the preparatory work, Bure Place car park and bus station will close, with bus stops expected to be temporarily relocated to North Street and Market Square.

Jamie Cowen, head of property development at Sainsbury’s, said: “The redevelopment will transform the heart of Bicester with exciting new retail and leisure facilities which will encourage more people to visit the town centre.”

Building the three-storey shopping and leisure centre is expected to start by the autumn and is due to finish by Christmas 2011.

Work was to begin in 2007 but the downturn in the economy hit funding and the project was delayed.