A last-ditch effort is being mounted to stop Witney's planned Cogges link road.

The protest is being organised by the conservation group the Witney Society, which was today leafleting every home on the Cogges estate.

The group claims the road will cause serious environmental damage in the Windrush Valley and not solve any of the town's traffic problems.

They are attempting to build up opposition by the objection deadline date of October 25 and force Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to call a public inquiry.

Colin Fowler, the Witney Society's chairman, said: "The county has jumped the gun by issuing a side roads order before planning permission has been given. But this gives people a last chance to try to scrap the scheme by objecting to the order."

The line of the Cogges link, from the Witan Way roundabout next to Sainsbury's supermarket to Oxford Hill, was agreed over five years ago. But finding the money for it -- now estimated at about £8m -- led to delays.

The county council now has the financial package in place, including major contributions from developers of housing estates in west and north-east Witney, and is hoping to press to start work soon, so the road is ready in early 2004.

The Environment Agency has objected to the scheme because of flooding fears and damage to the local floodplain ecology.

But David Robertson, the county council executive member for transport, who lives in Witney, said officers hoped to resolve these objections.

"The road is urgently needed to encourage traffic away from the town's bottleneck at Bridge Street," he said.

But the Witney Society aims to scupper the scheme by urging people to write directly to Mr Prescott, who is the Secretary of State for Local Government and the Regions, to object.

The society has put forward alternatives, including a Newland Link and a four-way junction at Shores Green, on the A40 Witney bypass, to relieve congestion in Bridge Street.