WORK will finally start on Didcot’s 3,340-home Great Western Park development in the spring, South Oxfordshire District Council has said.

The Herald has been told that housing association Sovereign has agreed to fund the construction of the first 100 social homes, allowing developer Taylor Wimpey, which put its plans on hold when the housing market collapsed last year, to kickstart the project.

Bulldozers will arrive on site early next year to start work on an access road stretching into the 180-acre site from the A4130 and other infrastructure projects needed to service the homes. Housebuilding will then start in about October 2010.

John Cotton, the district councillor responsible for Didcot’s growth plans, said Sovereign had put up the money to build 90 to 100 properties — enough to enable Taylor Wimpey to complete the first 300-home plot.

He said: “That is expected to start around this time next year. It gives enough cash to Taylor Wimpey to move things along.”

Taylor Wimpey is working on its development plan, detailing the order in which different parts of the estate will be built and timetabling when new amenities including shops and schools will be opened.

Mr Cotton said: “The £65m package of new facilities includes two primary and a secondary school, a new high street, a neighbourhood centre and a recreation ground.

“It’s detail we’re discussing — it’s not stuff we’re going to particularly fuss about. One of the issues is the capacity of existing schools and if it can be demonstrated that there’s less urgency to put in a primary school at the beginning.”

Mr Cotton said the project plan should be completed by the end of the year, before hundreds of detailed planning applications are submitted to the council listing every last light fitting and plug socket in the new homes.

Taylor Wimpey would not discuss details of its plans, but spokesman David Kuczora said: “We are in negotiation with a number of stakeholders and interested parties to ensure that the proposed scheme for Great Western Park meets the need of the local community.”

Housing association Sovereign also declined to comment.

Council bosses had conceded the recession meant it would take far longer to complete Great Western Park project than had first been hoped.

Mr Cotton said: “There’s no doubt (it) will be far slower. The question is what rate will the curve pick up again. Will it still be complete by 2016 or 2017, or are we more likely to see the site finished by 2020 or 2021?

“It’s all to do with the state of the economy. If people are buying houses, then Taylor Wimpey will sell them more quickly. A lot of it will be about how quickly new jobs a