THE comment made by David Cameron (October 13) echoed my contribution to the consultation forum on the new development plan for West Oxfordshire.

But I went even further by suggesting that all access routes out of West Oxfordshire, for employment, are congested to the point of strangling the economic future of the region.

There is no direct access to park-and-ride facilities without having to navigate the bottle-necks at Eynsham toll bridge, Botley or Wolvercote.

The A4095 has been further congested by commuters avoiding the A40, thus adding to the congestion at Pear Tree, to get to park-and-ride there.

The failure to complete the Cogges link-road, after decades of dithering, has ensured continued misery for returning commuters on the A4095 into Witney.

There has to be a case for including a park-and-ride, with direct access from the A40, within the Northern Gateway scheme. Instead of this scheme creating a further impediment to traffic, it could ease congestion on the Wolvercote and Pear Tree roundabouts.

To arrive in time to fulfil an appointment at any of the Oxford hospitals requires Witney patients to allow as much as one and a half hours to get there. A recent round trip to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital took four hours.

Commuting to Abingdon or Didcot for work involves suffering delays at Newbridge, Frilford and Marcham on roads incapable of meeting the needs of today’s traffic.

Any business or prospective homeowner that considers moving into Witney or the surrounding area are committing themselves to the misery of wasted, unproductive hours seeking work which is not available locally.

The county council must address these problems before adding to them by advocating the building of more houses in the region, and it needs to do it now because the houses are sorely needed.

W R Ward
Tristram Road
Ducklington

Today’s letters


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