The Light opens at Banbury's £56m Castle Quay Waterfront complex

Cherwell District Council took on the redevelopment plan after an investor dropped out in 2017

A new leisure complex in a £56m council-owned entertainment hub has opened.

The Light opened at Castle Quay Waterfront, Banbury, Oxfordshire, as part of a major redevelopment alongside the Oxford Canal on Friday.

Cherwell District Council has paid for the new centre itself. It bought the Castle Quay shopping centre, on the other side of the canal, in 2017.

But a councillor said the new facility would not help independent traders.

The authority bought the shopping centre for £65.2m from Aberdeen Standard Investments, which dropped out of a plan to build the leisure complex.

A Premier Inn hotel and Lidl supermarket have already opened, while restaurants are still being finished. The Light includes a cinema, bowling alley and climbing wall.

Building the new centre cost at least £56.4m, and the Conservative-led council's deputy leader said it is still happy with its decision.

Ian Corkin said the authority had been faced with a "very clear choice" when investors dropped out

Ian Corkin said: "We had a very clear choice: to either see the town centre go into decline or to make the investment and actually build it ourselves.

"That's what we decided to do and we have no regrets about that when you see the transformation."

Chains including Marks & Spencer and Debenhams have closed their stores in the shopping centre since August 2020.

James Morris, the chief executive of The Light, said he expects Banbury to see "huge growth" and that there is a "real sense of optimism and change" in the town.

Ian Middleton said independent traders will not be helped by the new complex

But a critic of the scheme, Green councillor Ian Middleton, said the authority has got its priorities wrong.

"It may be big and new and shiny but it's not really going to help the existing offer in Banbury," he said.

"I think as councillors we have a responsibility to support existing businesses and make sure they're thriving rather than investing in commercial operations to essentially try to make some money.

"That is important but I think we have a social responsibility to existing small businesses as well."