The Government has announced the preferred corridor for the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge Expressway based on a recommendation from Highways England. The preferred route is known as Route B. The route is aligned with the East-West Rail route.
This route avoids a direct route across to Ayelsbury and it also avoids Otmoor and its important nature reserve. While at present, the details of the route around Oxford are also unspecified, we still need to campaign to protect the Green Belt to the south of Oxford and also to acknowledge the concerns of villages to the north such as Weston on the Green.
I said:
"I congratulate all those who have campaigned on this issue to support the nature reserve at Otmoor. We need to continue the campaign to ensure that the Oxford Green Belt is not sacrificed. We also need to listen to the issues of individual villages such as Weston on the Green to understand community issues. I welcome the commitment to public consultation and I hope that that consultation will now be comprehensive and not try to ignore local opinions."
I have filled the gap left by official consultations by organising an opportunity for 23 parish councils to meet and discuss the project with the champion for the project, Iain Stewart MP.
I continued:
"We need to ensure that this constituency and the broader area remains connected to the wider road network. I welcome the inclusion of the A420 in a broader connectivity study. We also now need to make sure that the route includes provision for road traffic in the area including mechanisms for protecting villages near which the route passes."
The big issue of the route around Oxford remains to be discussed. The Henley MP has long campaigned for the route to pass to the west of Oxford. He doubted that the route would make any substantial use of the M40 as the intention is for the route to follow the line of the rail link to Milton Keynes in a northerly direction.
I have been lobbying intensively on this project. I have had three meetings with the Secretary of State for Transport during these discussions. I have written to him on two occasions and have also raised the issue with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Expressway Action Group co-ordinator Peter Rutt said
"We are very pleased that Corridor A was rejected by the Government's experts: it would have caused massive damage to Green Belt and flood plain lands across the county. We are also very glad that there is going to be proper public consultation next year before any final decision on a route round Oxford, and we are most grateful for the wholehearted support of our MPs in EAG's campaign.
"The inclusion of the A420 link to Swindon in the further study also offers the chance to reduce pressures on the A34, and we welcome that. EAG will continue to work closely with our MPs and with Highways England to encourage the project's use of existing roads to minimise costs, environmental damage and risks to rare wildlife habitat."
