COUNCILLORS are calling for consultation on the county’s new transport plan to be extended to give them enough time to consider it properly.

Oxfordshire County Council has been accused of trying to “steam roll” through its local transport plan, Connecting Oxfordshire, by members of Bicester Town Council.

Consultation into the proposals ends on Thursday, but Cherwell’s Local Plan report is not expected until after the May elections.

Town councillor Jim Tucker said this was “completely inconsistent” and argued it was too soon to expect feedback.

The local transport plan, known as LTP4, sets out new infrastructure and developments for improving transport across the county.

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Mr Tucker said: “There is really one key point, LTP4 is intended to be a strategy which outlines an overview of what Oxfordshire County Council intends to do about transport in the county. The problem is it is completely inconsistent.

“There are contradictions with the Cherwell Local Plan and the Bicester Transport Plan, so it would have been sensible to have delayed the consultation until after the inspector’s report on Cherwell’s Local Plan. Oxfordshire County Council is either trying to steam roll it through or has been inconsiderate.”

Bicester mayor Lynn Pratt added: “I think a letter has gone from the council asking that the consultation is extended because we felt that we could not talk much about the plan until we get the Local Plan back.”

County council spokesman Dominic Llewellyn-Jones said: “There will be no change to the consultation dates for LTP4 “We welcome all feedback from key stakeholders, and for feedback to be as informed as possible, but there must be a cut-off.”

Consultation on LTP4 started on February 5 and the results are due to be published by Tuesday, June 16.

John Broad, of the Bicester branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “When I started to go through it, it’s called a plan but it is a series of aspirations with no details.

“It is not a plan, you can’t put that out asking for consultation feedback with no details.

“They haven’t taken into account changes in the Cherwell Local Plan. It was agreed the inspector would not report until after the election.”