PLANS for a new eco factory in Bicester could bring up to 400 jobs to the town, developers have said.

Negotiations are under way to lease the former Oxfam building in Murdock Road to a firm that wants to make the frames and panels for 5,000 eco homes planned for farmland in north west Bicester.

Eco town consortium P3Eco has said the factory could be up and running towards the end of next year.

Plans were approved in August for the first phase of the eco development, which include 393 homes, offices, a pub, community centre and shops.

And it is hoped the factory will be ready to supply frames for the homes for the first stage of the 345 hectare development.

P3Eco director Ian Inshaw said: “There are negotiations going on as we speak and financials are being resolved with the people leasing the building.

“I imagine it would open next year, probably towards the latter part of 2012 and we hope it would be available to whoever develops the exemplar site.

“There could be about 400 jobs and it will ramp up over time.

“The whole thing is good news for Bicester.”

It is hoped the factory could be linked with Oxford and Cherwell Valley College and Oxford Brookes University, which have both been in talks with P3Eco for some time about running eco construction courses.

As part of the eco town initiative, the development is expected to provide one job for every home.

Ben Jackson, chairman of Bicester Chamber of Commerce, said: “The Chamber has continually sought assurance that the promised jobs associated with the Eco Bicester initiative were realised.

“This is an excellent start and, we hope, just a beginning on delivering employment growth for Bicester alongside housing.”

Bicester Town Council’s Conservative leader James Porter said: “We are absolutely delighted the building work for the eco homes will be in Bicester, using a previously redundant building.

“The whole thing with eco is about recycling, so why can’t we recycle a building like everything else.

“It is very good news.”

“We would have been very concerned if the fabricated buildings were made somewhere else and shipped in,” he added.

Property firm B&P, based in Churchill Road, Bicester, bought the 3,920 sq metre former Oxfam site earlier this year.

Plans to change its use from storage and distribution to office and general industrial use were approved in June.

Nobody from B&P Properties was available to comment.

bicester@oxfordmail.co.uk