It’s a while since I provided an update on the major developments around Wantage and Grove so I thought that I’d start with the developments in Wantage.

If you drive from Grove to Wantage you will have seen the care home being built on Grove Road.

It’s up to full height now and is going to be larger than any of the other care facilities in Wantage.

What I don’t think any of us had realised was that the height of the car park near the road would be at least a metre above the height of Grove Road!

It will include a 65 bed care home and 50 extra care units.

People who live in Extra Care Housing have their own self-contained homes and their own front doors and, according to the plans, there will be a communal lounge, bistro and library on the ground floor and on the second floor there will be a gym and two terraces.

The final part of the development off the Denchworth Road near Fitzwaryn school is now fully reserved and should be complete soon, although there are plans for a further 8 homes off Lime Kiln directly behind the school so construction traffic continues.

The other big development is Kingsgrove on Crab Hill on the eastern edge of Wantage. The whole site is 227 acres and will accommodate 1,500 homes.

The first phase built by St Modwen (72 homes) is behind Charlton Cricket pitch and is very close to being finished.

The main development is a little further out of Wantage off the A417 and accessed by a new road.

When the Wantage Eastern Relief Road (WELR) is built (from the Mably roundabout to a new roundabout at the Lockinge turning off the A417), the current entrance off the A417 will be closed to all traffic except buses and emergency vehicles.

The primary school in the middle of the site has been finished and pupils have arrived.

We are told that work on the WELR will start sometime next year.

In the meantime, Bellway (82 homes) and St Modwen (102 homes) are now building just north of the A417.

Cala homes are building 174 homes just south of the new school and now Taylor Wimpey have submitted a planning application for another 171 homes just east of the Cala site and north of Bellway.

This means about 600 homes are already in the pipeline, 900 more to come.