More consultations!
On Monday, 22 September, Oxfordshire County Council held a meeting with stakeholders to present its latest transport strategy for the county. For West Oxfordshire residents hoping for concrete progress, the session was a familiar disappointment.
The information released wasn’t momentous – it simply brought together existing proposals under a single approach: expanding Banbury, the cross-country line to Cambridge, a couple of stations here and there (like Wantage, which has been discussed for the last 30 years), and doubling the first part of the Cotswold line.
The meeting was clearly a tick-box exercise rather than a genuine consultation. Allowing for the usual speaker overruns, the actual Q&A session squeezed in just six questions over ten minutes from a 90-minute programme.
West Oxfordshire: The Black Hole
Most notable was the absence of firm proposals for West Oxfordshire. Except for a brief presentation at the end, showing a red line described as “an opportunity for intermodal transport still under discussion,” West Oxfordshire remained a black hole in the county’s approach, dismissed with vague mentions of “more consultations needed.”
What these consultations could possibly reveal that isn’t already known is a mystery. Twenty-five years ago, transport consultants Mott MacDonald delivered a clear warning to the council. Unless the A40 is dualled and a rail link is provided between Oxford and Witney, there would be serious negative consequences for the area’s development.
Twenty-Five Years of Inaction
A quarter-century and two separate consultants’ reports screaming for urgent action later, what do we have to show for it? A new park and ride facility outside Eynsham, which stands empty and inaccessible to road users and is costing us £10,000 every month in maintenance. While the Shores Green bypass will provide some relief to Witney, it won’t meet the exponential growth in housing planned across the area over the next decade.
More recent reports commissioned by the council concluded that without additional transport links, the area would be gridlocked by 2030. By the time more houses are built, retrofitting roads or rail becomes even more expensive.
A Glimmer of Hope
There’s a faint possibility that enlightened developers might compensate for the Council’s inertia and realise that severe infrastructure deficits could devalue their investments. Acting together, they might support solutions – perhaps even a rail link to the new Park & Ride. But in the current economic climate, hope is slim.
The Time for Action is Now
The choice is clear: accept another 25 years of inaction, or lobby the council and all local politicians to demand real solutions.
The 16,000 new homes planned for our area are expected to generate over 32,000 additional daily car journeys without alternative and sustainable transport means, and living standards in our District will degrade. We cannot afford to be left behind.
Don’t let West Oxfordshire remain the county’s forgotten corner. Join our campaign for a railway from Oxford to Witney and Carterton before it is too late (witneyoxfordtransport.org.uk).
Witney Oxford Transport Group 