AS another road closure come into effect as part of infrastructure improvement project Access to Headington, complaints are growing of 'endless roadworks'.

The £12.5m Oxfordshire County Council scheme aims to improve infrastructure, including new cycle paths and bus lanes at key entry and exit points across north east Oxford in a bid to improve traffic flows.

The third phase of works centres on the junction at Churchill Drive and Old Road – involving the installation of permanent traffic lights, the re-alignment of the footpath and other improvements.

Work has already begun in the area with temporary traffic lights, with motorists and householders suffering a fresh week-long overnight road closure at the junction, which began yesterday and will finish on Friday.

The fourth phase in the overall project, meanwhile, is set to begin near to the John Radcliffe Hospital at Headley Way and Cherwell Drive on January 2018.

Speaking of the latest works Headington councillor Ruth Wilkinson said: "[Fellow councillor] Mohammed Altaf-Khan and I are getting feedback from resident surveys that roadworks are endless, and that is understandable.

"The Highfield area has been hit relentlessly by the energy pipe works, the construction of the new student flats in Latimer Road, and the diversions and congestion resulting from the Access to Headington scheme.

"Hopefully there will be some respite soon, but works in Headley Way will start soon after Christmas and continue into the summer.

"We've asked the county to hold another presentation of what will happen in Headley Way before work starts, as there are a lot of new tenants who have moved into the area who don't yet know what is planned."

County councillor Liz Brighouse, meanwhile, said that residents had had enough and called for a more radical solution to tackling the increased strain on the traffic network.

She said: "It is just really difficult for residents, the roads weren't built to take the level they have now. The traffic moving through Old Road is just dreadful with queues all the way down to the Churchill hospital.

"Developments in the last 30 years have quadrupled traffic. It is very difficult for local residents to get around now. It is about looking at what sort of traffic is generated by these developments."

She said housing developments out of town were adding to the strain and that new large-scale park and ride facilities could help alleviate this.

Oxfordshire County Council say the Access to Headington work once it is completed will improve traffic flows across Headington, and the section at Churchill Drive and Old Road is set to be completed by mid-December.