VILLAGERS have asked their MP to help fight a 10-month closure of their main street, which they fear will kill businesses.

Network Rail plans to close Steventon High Street Bridge from February 16 to December 18 to raise it.

The firm needs to make room for new overhead electric cables as part of its £1bn electrification of the Great Western Main Line.

But village businesses said they were told they could claim compensation for loss of trade only after the 10 months, by which time they fear it will be too late.

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Residents also fear the closure of their High Street alongside other major roadworks next year will cause “chaos”.

Steventon Parish Council has asked Wantage MP Ed Vaizey for help on both fronts.

Vice-chairman Robert Green said: “This will cause huge disruption.

“If local businesses only get compensation after 10 months they will go out of business, and that would be a permanent loss to the village.

“I already know two businesses who are planning to close or move out of the village.”

Mr Vaizey said he had been talking with Network Rail and Oxfordshire County Council for months trying to mitigate the impact of the closure.

The MP previously managed to stop the firm closing the A338 in Wantage to rebuild a bridge, persuading it to build a new one next door.

But he said that solution was not possible for Steventon because of a lack of space.

He promised: “I will continue to work with Network Rail and the council and am calling for a meeting with both in the near future to ensure that every possible measure is taken to reduce, as far as possible, the impact of the closure.”

Network Rail said it would be writing to and meeting with businesses to explain what assistance would be available during the closure.

Contractors would be on site from January 12 until January 29 next year, and a footbridge suitable for pedestrians and cyclists would be installed before construction starts.

The official diversions will be via the A338, A415, A417 and A4130.

But Oxfordshire County Council is planning a series of roadworks on those roads next year, including at Milton Interchange and Chilton slip roads to the A34.

Mr Green said: “People who can’t use those road will try going through Steventon.

“The traffic will back up through the village and it will be absolute chaos.”

Neither Network Rail or the county council responded to a request to comment before the Oxford Mail went to press.


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