Cash pot to drive cars on to relief road (From Oxford Mail)
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Cash pot to drive cars on to relief road
12:00pm Wednesday 9th May 2012 in Banbury
ABOUT £1.5m is to be spent in a bid to get drivers to use Banbury’s controversial inner relief road.
Oxfordshire County Council could use the cash to change lane markings and improve signs to try to change town centre traffic flows.
The A4260 relief road, which was built in the 1990s, turns off Oxford Road at the Horton Hospital, linking to Upper Windsor Street and Hennef Way.
But many drivers have not used the road as it means negotiating three sets of traffic lights.
Instead they go through the town via South Bar Street and Horsefair.
Banbury Easington county councillor Kieron Mallon said: “We are trying to encourage drivers not to go through Banbury town centre.”
No decisions have been made on how the cash – from developer contributions – will be spent, he said.
As previously reported, the council is also considering a roundabout at the relief road’s crossroads at Bridge Street.
Mr Mallon said the best solution was a long-mooted plan for a “south east relief road” around the east of town from Ermont Way to Oxford Road. This is backed in the council’s long-term transport strategy, which says the A4260 should until then be the “primary north-south route”.
Tom Blinkhorn, who runs TV and hi-fi shop Blinkhorns in South Bar Street, questioned whether drivers could be diverted. He said: “That is what the inner relief road is there for but that’s what it never achieved. It won’t work and people will come through town again.”
