For years people have campaigned for Lodge Hill junction in North Abingdon to be upgraded to a full diamond interchange, adding south facing slips onto the A34. The Vale of White Horse and Oxfordshire County Councils have already commissioned preliminary work on the junction and for the first time ever the Conservative-led Vale District Council has included the improvements in the Council's Local Plan and associated infrastructure package. At last as part of the Growth Deal, the Government has given the green light for the Diamond Junction to go ahead. Like every other project agreed in the Growth Deal, Lodge Hill will be subject to a formal contract to be signed between Government and the Local Enterprise Partnership, finally putting beyond all doubt that the junction improvements will definitely go ahead. Matthew Barber said, "Finally Government has recognised the need for the Lodge Hill junction, and we can now make it a reality. Work can now continue on the design stages and we now have all the pieces of the funding jigsaw. I want to see these improvements happen as soon as possible and will use the Vale's resources to front-fund developer contributions if necessary."