Maurizio Fantato

Oxford Mail:

West Oxfordshire Transport committee member

Congestion on the A40 in West Oxfordshire has been a problem for longer than most people care to remember.

A dual carriageway was considered the solution in the 1970s after Beeching closed the railway link from Oxford to Fairford via Witney and plans were drawn up but never executed.

This established the pattern for the next five decades – problem recognised; solutions proposed; nothing done; problem just gets worse.

West Oxfordshire Transport (WOT) was founded some two years ago to act as catalyst for the various activities carried out by other groups and to make sure this issue remained at the top of Oxfordshire County Council’s agenda.

There is almost no aspect of West Oxfordshire life that is not blighted by congestion on the A40.

If you’re in luck (or in the middle of the night), perhaps 20 minutes from Oxford to Witney, if not maybe three hours.

The implications of this are far-reaching: hospital appointments cannot be kept, meetings and travel connections are missed.

Oxford may be a global educational and medical centre, but its links are with London, not with the rest of its own county.

Carterton and Witney, separated by a journey distance of up to three hours from Oxford, have failed to fulfil their economic potential. You can travel to Gloucester or Cheltenham from Witney in much less time than it may take you to reach the centre of Oxford.

If this situation continues, Witney will be deprived of the social and economic diversification it desperately needs and simply left serving Cotswold tourists and second homes.

The county council has attempted to grapple the problem through a series of master plans.

Its first iteration of Connecting Oxfordshire, the plan for the county’s transport, presented a surreal dream of a high tech Oxford served by monorails, an international airport and new links to London.

Everywhere to the west of Cassington was ignored.

In the run-up to May’s General Election, a BBC survey found the A40 issue to be more important to the people of Witney than all other issues combined – more than the NHS, austerity, housing or Trident.

The county council is now desperate to be seen to be doing something.

So it’s busy arranging consultations galore in an attempt to reassure us that it can offer hope of salvation and a say about which solution to favour.

Of course, we know there are choices to be made. The council has just received its consultant’s report on the options – and their cost.

We might bring back the train we once had, and even use part of the old track bed. Or we might have light rail, or perhaps a tram. Or we might give the existing buses a hand with dedicated bus lanes, or even guided bus ways. Then there is the option of 50 years ago, turning the A40 into a dual carriageway, an option that seems obvious to Witney’s Chamber of Commerce.

The Oxfordshire car lobby sees the right to drive as a basic freedom, whatever the costs to the public purse, or the environment.

The county council, however, is obliged to spend the funds allocated by the Local Enterprise Partnership on a public transport solution.

So the new vision is to have bus lanes from Oxford as far as Eynsham, where a park-and-ride will accommodate those who take to the buses.

WOT believes that this choice is mainly dictated by the limited funds being allocated, rather than by a proper evaluation of needs.

We also see a blatant disconnect between the planned cuts to rural buses and the proposal to rely on buses to connect Witney (and surroundings) with Oxford. Where is the coordinated long-term strategic approach in all this?

Our preference would be for a modern, integrated rail option made up of series of sequential transport exchange nodes (car, bike, buses, rail).

These could be built in several stages, spreading costs over a period of years, as well as requesting major housing developers to contribute.

We strongly dispute the figures by the recently appointed consultants; given that mile for mile their estimated cost of reopening the link between Yarnton and Witney would be much higher than that of opening the Scottish Border railways.

A serious problem requires a serious solution.

The council should lobby central government for real funds, not just a few crumbs. It should also aim to extract as much compensation as possible from developers.

Other local authorities around the country have demonstrated that where there is a real will to provide cutting-edge long-term transport solution the appropriate funds can be found.