The Wolvercote Railway Bridge at Duke’s Cut waterway is in need of strengthening and maintenance works.

Non-contributing concrete that encases the bridge’s steel portal frames needs to be removed from the aging bridge.

The exposed steel portal frame also needs strengthening with a protective paint solution added to protect against corrosion.

Oxfordshire County Council documents say these works are essential to enable the delivery of housing in West Oxfordshire.

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An estimated 4,813 new homes are expected to be built along the A40 corridor in West Oxfordshire.

The county council, as the highways authority, is tasked with funding this bridge repair project.

Estimated to cost £6.5m, it is funded using £5m of council taxpayers’ money and £1.5m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

At a meeting, cabinet member for highways construction and repair Liz Leffman agreed to award a £4,855,610 contract to the M Group to carry out the work.

The M Group is the main contractor behind the pothole repairs across Oxfordshire.

She said the project is “time sensitive” due to it being a Network Rail bridge, adding: “It needs to be handed back to them once the work is done.”

“For a long time now, we have been looking at how we can improve the A40, particularly with regard to bus lanes, better active travel facilities and this is very much all part of that project which is now going ahead,” she added.

The contract will comprise mobilisation works during stage one with an estimated value of £776,556 while the main construction works will be in stage two.

Work is understood to begin soon, as part of the Eynsham park and ride to Wolvercote scheme.

Eynsham park and ride (Image: Supplied)

The £51 million Eynsham park and ride on the A40 remains closed as it currently lacks an access road.

The 850-space Eynsham Park and Ride facility physically finished construction in January 2024. However, the site was left dormant because it lacked road access.

Following planning approval granted in June 2026, a £126m scheme is underway to build an access junction, which is expected to open the site in 2027.

Preparatory work will begin shortly, including planning approvals, site clearance and compound set-up, with construction due to start later this year.

The project will be delivered in phases. The initial phase will deliver a new junction connecting the A40 to Eynsham park and ride, along with bus priority measures and upgraded active travel routes.

A planning application for a new AI data centre in Shilford, on land and in barns which was previously used by an agricultural business, has been lodged with West Oxfordshire District Council.

The proposed data centre would be operated by Brakenwood Family Pension Trust and is being put forward by AIVS, an AI infrastructure firm focused on building centres in the UK.

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But it has received a huge number of objections from locals, with more than 180 people leaving comments on the planning application expressing their concerns.

Lily Crozier, of Carterton, said: “Building a data centre in Shilton not only damages the local wildlife and ecology, but adds to the destruction of human and animal habitats worldwide.

“The environmental damage data centres such as this pose far outweigh any minute positives, and this is not the stance West Oxfordshire should be taking. Shameful.”

The field where two existing barns are set to be demolished and rebuilt as five data centre warehouses (Image: Google)

Authorities like Shilton Parish Council and Thames Valley Police also voiced their opposition, and council departments like water, drainage and contamination said stringent conditions should be attached to any permission granted by the council.

The police’s ‘designing out crime officer’, Kevin Cox, issued a ‘holding objection’ to the plans on the grounds that there is insufficient information on the security measures protecting the data centre, as it would ‘store and process data linked to government communication networks’ and would likely be designated ‘critical national infrastructure’.

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The applicant responded to many of the commentors, emphasising that because the technology is ‘changing rapidly’, only an outline application has been submitted – leaving most of the application’s technical matters for a more ‘detailed design’ stage of the planning.

The facility itself is not expected to become operational until after 2032 and would take at least 12 months to build, with the applicant adding: “It would be inappropriate to commit the scheme to today’s server, cooling and energy technology when these systems are developing rapidly.”

They did say, however, that designs do not currently envision large volumes of water being required for cooling or abstraction, and instead ‘air-cooled, closed-loop or factory-contained systems are being explored’.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has advised that an additional 30 MW of dedicated electricity supply – routed separately to the normal grid that supplies homes and businesses – would be required, at an additional infrastructure cost of approximately £30million.

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Because the application is for ‘strategic digital infrastructure’ and the electrical supply required, the applicant requested the plans are considered for call-in by the Secretary of State.

The government’s powers to call-in an application are generally only used if planning issues ‘of more than local importance’ are involved.

If it is called in, a planning inspector will hear the plans at a public inquiry, and a decision on whether to grant or refuse permission will be published by the government.

There were long queues on the opening day earlier this month and staff have been working hard ever since.

The town has not had a traditional butcher’s shop for many years and customers have given it a warm welcome.

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Mr Brown said: “It’s been really busy – we keep having to make more sausages each day to keep up with the growing demand.

Martin Brown with a string of sausages (Image: Andy Ffrench)

“I think people in the town have been missing having a traditional butcher’s shop – they have been crying out for it.”

Some customers have switched from buying their meat in the local supermarkets to buying it at Brown’s instead – one customer on Saturday bought steaks and other meat costing about £76.

Following the opening weekend, Mr Brown posted on Facebook: “o every single customer who visited us over the opening weekend, thank you for your patience while we found our feet. We were completely blown away by the queues and support.

Inside Brown’s Traditional Butcher’s (Image: Andy Ffrench)

“We know there were longer waits than anyone would have liked, but your kindness, understanding, and lovely comments meant the world to us.

This is more than just a butcher’s shop to us – it’s the start of a dream that we hope will be part of the Abingdon community for many years to come. We promise to keep learning, improving, and giving you the quality, service, and products you deserve.”