A NEW road linking Didcot and Abingdon and crossing the Thames has been proposed.

According to the plans, the road would run from the northern Didcot perimeter road – the A4130 – to the A415 between Abingdon and Berinsfield although the route has not been finalised.

County council engineers have been discussing the idea in the hope it could ease the strain on other roads as 3,300 new homes are built at Great Western Park in Didcot.

About 600 homes on the estate off the A4130 are already occupied.

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Many of the residents, it is hoped, will work at Culham Science Park on the A415.

Oxfordshire county councillor for Wallingford Lynda Atkins said the new road would be “brilliant” and “the sooner the better.”

She added: “The bridges at Sutton Courtenay and Clifton Hampden are both under strain so there will have to be a new one. Building a lot of new homes and trying to expand employment opportunities will inevitably generate more traffic.”

Vale of White Horse District Council wants to build 20,560 homes in the area by 2031, with the intention that many new residents would work in the Science Vale Enterprise Zone. The zone claims to have 13 per cent of research and development employment in South East England.

Last year the Government pledged £60m to Culham’s Reaction Engines to develop its revolutionary SABRE rocket engine.

Abingdon Town Council leader Sandy Lovatt said the new road was essential for businesses in the Science Vale area at Culham, Harwell Oxford and Milton Park.

Mr Lovatt added: “This is essentially a good idea. The subject of housing in the Vale has raised a lot of issues around traffic and travel.

“A lot of people feel Abingdon attracts too much traffic and gets clogged and the overloading of the A34 is a major concern, so we need to do something.”

He said he saw Abingdon as a tourist and leisure destination and said “a new road may not be a bad idea to keep heavy traffic out of town.”

But South Oxfordshire district councillor for Didcot Bill Service said too much work already needed to be done on existing Didcot roads to consider a new one.

He said: “What the county should do is improve the roads we have got.

“The northern perimeter road should be improved and that was promised years ago.

“The A4130 past Hadden Hill Golf Club is atrocious and the Jubilee roundabout in Didcot is a massive bottleneck at peak times.”

He added: “Anything that takes traffic away from Didcot is a good thing, but they have got projects they should be finishing now.”

County spokesman Dominic Llewellyn-Jones said: “The county council is exploring a number of new transport schemes to support the increased level of growth being planned for across Oxfordshire.

“More details will be available when further consultation on Local Transport Plan Four is held in the new year.”

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