AN Oxford councillor is trying to get Witney’s Cogges Link Road scheme scrapped so £14m can then be spent elsewhere.

Labour city and county councillor John Tanner wants a cheaper alternative to the £18m scheme.

But the county council’s cabinet member for growth and infrastructure, Ian Hudspeth, has disputed the claims and said the scheme was vital.

Planning permission for the road was given in April 2009 and the project has since survived spending reviews and a campaign to give Town Green status to some of the land it will cross.

Mr Tanner has tabled a motion at next week’s county council meeting calling for the “cheaper Shores Green alternative” – involving improvements to the interchange on the A40 Witney bypass – to be chosen instead and for the surplus funds to be spent on other projects.

He said: “It’s not value for money and it’s not going to solve the congestion and pollution problems of Witney. It will also take funds away from other much-needed projects.

“The county council is cutting back left, right and centre but this is the blue-eyed boy of all the schemes. They are determined to spend money in the Prime Minister’s constituency, when everyone knows it won’t solve the problems.

“The cost of the Cogges Link Road is about £18m and the cost of the Shores Green alternative is about £4m.

“I think the Tories are absolutely tied into this white-elephant scheme. I’ve actually been knocking on doors in Witney and local people do not share their enthusiasm. They want something done about traffic, but to spend so much money in these times seems crazy.”

He added: “We could be spending this £14m that would be surplus on recycling, on schools, on new railways and bridges, all types of schemes crying out for funding.”

The aim of the Cogges Link Road is to cut congestion on busy Bridge Street – a bottleneck in the town – by creating another crossing over the River Windrush.

Mr Hudspeth disputed Mr Tanner’s figures. He said: “The Shores Green option is priced somewhere around £9m and is unfunded.

“What I think Mr Tanner is saying is money from Cogges Link Road could be used elsewhere, but it can’t. Developer funding is there for the Cogges Link Road. Also, modelling shows that the Shores Green option would not relieve the traffic problems of Witney.

“In the March 2008 transport decision we did assess all options, including ‘do nothing’, and the Cogges Link Road was the best option.”