TWO DIRECTORS of Abingdon's beleaguered hydro power plant scheme have revealed they are in talks with a company which believes the project could still go ahead.

Husband and wife Martin Bowes and Sophie Christopher-Bowes say they and other directors were given an estimate for the project of £1.2m, within their original budget.

Abingdon Hydro announced in November it was pulling the plug on its plans to install two Archimedes screws in the Thames at Abingdon Weir after getting a construction quote of £3m, saying "the finances were against us".

Directors promised to pay back as much as they could of the £840,000 they had raised for the scheme from 420 investors.

But Mr Bowes, 63, has now said another firm gave the group a quote for building the facility which was less than half the £3m offer and within the group's original estimate for the whole project of £1.25m.

He told the Herald: "A Totnes company, HydroSense, which is a leader in renewable energy believed it could be done for £1.2 million.

"They offered to come and present to the directors to see if they wanted to continue, to prevent them from doing that was an absolute waste of effort.

"It's only fair for the community of Abingdon and for all the members to be given an opportunity to consider the scheme and make their own decision.

"No one person has the gift to decide whether the scheme should live or die."

Ian Bright, who works with HydroSense, said the company was still willing to work with Abingdon Hydro to develop a proposal.

He said: "You have got what appears to be a viable site and a group that wants to make it work and an organisation capable of developing that – it would be a shame to throw that away.

"There does seem to be a core of people that want to make this work and I hope we can take it forward."

Mrs Christopher-Bowes, 48, said: "There is a massive rift in the directors of Abingdon Hydro: some directors want to continue but we've got others saying to shut it down.

"Some of them stepped down and had enough - there's so much disagreement they lost hope."

She said she still hoped to pursue HydroSense's proposals, adding: "We want a place to bring people into Abingdon and something to make them feel proud of."

However Abingdon Hydro director Penny Clover said the company was going to continue repaying investors their money.

She said: "Martin and Sophie were very disappointed, as were we all.

"They believed that they had found a company which could build at a sufficiently low price but since then we have been unable to get any clear proposal and figures out of the company.

"Therefore we must continue with the winding up and making repayments to investors."

She said Abingdon Hydro planned to hand over its research for the project and "intellectual property" to the Low Carbon Hub in Oxford, so that "if the opportunity should arise once more in Abingdon" to build a hydro power plant, any new group pursuing it would have that evidence at their disposal.

The company promised earlier this month to get investors their money back - minus £120,000 spent on consultation - by March 31.