Last week I presented the county council with a petition from people in Witney asking for a four-way A40 junction at Shores Green to be made a top priority to cut traffic problems. The ruling Conservatives seemed to be late converts to the idea. This did not stop their leaders objecting to me presenting the petition, nor from barracking me about sitting in the wrong place. This playground behaviour does them no credit.

The Conservatives amended a motion from Labour councillors Sanders and Price to prioritise Shores Green. Instead they put it last in the queue behind Downs Road junction, which is not even at blueprint stage. Where are the plans for Shores Green? The County hasn’t even used outline plans drawn up by developers before the Cogges Inquiry in 2012.

After a flurry of excitement, when David Cameron seemed to suggest central funds would be made available, Conservatives say more houses are needed to fund and build it. Where’s the money set aside in county coffers for local roads when more than 2,000 homes were built on Madley Park and Cogges? If there was £20 million for the useless Cogges Link, where’s the £5 million for Shores Green? Future development must be approved or refused on its own merits, not nodded through to pay for strategic schemes.

We’ve waited for decades. We’ve paid for county Conservative delay, bungling and incompetence. It seems all they can do is moan about Witney petitions, and whinge about seats in the county council chamber.

Cllr DUNCAN ENRIGHT, district councillor, Witney East, Newland, Witney

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