CAMPAIGNERS who successfully fought the Cogges Link Road proposal in Witney are now pushing an alternative scheme.

Oxfordshire County Council was refused permission by the Government to compulsorily purchase land needed for the Witney link road last month.

It brought to an end a 27-year battle between campaigners and County Hall.

But protesters were furious when council leader Ian Hudspeth said building a four-way junction on the A40 at Shores Green was not necessarily the preferred alternative.

He said the council would look at all the options before it spent more money on a scheme to combat congestion and pollution in the town centre.

Now campaigners are calling for the council to prioritise the Shores Green scheme and build it as soon as possible.

They plan send out 15,000 posters and letters to every single household and business in Witney this week.

The ‘Go Shores Green Slip Road’ posters mimic the ‘We Say No to the Cogges Link Road’ signs that were seen in windows across the town during the recent public inquiry.

David Condon, chairman of the Witney branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and anti-link road campaign group Witney First, said: “We were more than surprised that Ian Hudspeth said the Shores Green slip road was never Plan B.

“It is recorded that the council at the public inquiry gave commitments to progress Shores Green very quickly, should the compulsory purchase order on the Cogges Link Road be rejected, which it was.

“We feel the council is playing games.

“They have wasted enough money over the past 10 years ignoring Shores Green and I cannot understand why they are continuing to reject it.

“We would like to see the county council indicate that they will pursue Shores Green junction with the urgency that is required and complement it with the A40 junction at Downs Road and the improvements at the Ducklington Lane/Station Lane junction.

“The wrong solution is no solution.”

Mr Hudspeth said Shores Green had land ownership issues and traffic modelling showed it would cause queueing at the Ducklington roundabout and on the A40.

He said: “It may well be we have to do other things to alleviate the queueing on Ducklington roundabout to ensure that if Shores Green goes ahead, it stops the queueing.

I am sure that everyone would agree that queueing on the A40 is dangerous.

“We have not ruled out Shores Green. We are looking at all the options.”

With planning permission and environmental impact assessments needed for any scheme, it could be several years before any work starts.