A GROUP opposed to the Oxford-Cambridge expressway potentially ploughing through Green Belt land has urged the Government to build a new link road between the A34 and A420 for it.

The Expressway Action Group is opposed to the new road, which could cost billions of pounds, being built on 10 miles of Green Belt land south of Oxford.

But it said it supports a new link road between the A34 and A420 to the west of Oxford, which Highways England outlined as one possibility for the expressway in papers produced in September.

It said it could act as a relief road for Oxford, taking through traffic away from Botley and back onto the A34 further north.

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Peter Rutt, EAG’s coordinator, said: “This confirms there is no need for a new 10-mile expressway across Oxford’s Green Belt. There is a better way to save Oxford and Botley.

“If the Government is determined to provide an expressway around Oxford, then we all have to fight to ensure the best outcome for the city and Oxfordshire.”

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran and some Botley residents have been fiercely opposed to the A34 being used as part of the new expressway over fears homes might need to be bulldozed to make way for it.

But last Friday, transport minister Jesse Norman said the Government has yet to rule out any potential options for the expressway route, including prized nature reserve Otmoor or Botley.

In September, the Government said it was minded to build the new road to the west and north of Oxford, potentially including Botley – known as route B1 – or either south and east of the city, known as route B3.

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On Friday, Mr Norman said: “We have not ruled out options – any options – at this stage.”

He added: “We do not make prejudgements about decisions to the extent roads are upgraded versus how new roads are being constructed.”

The cost of any new expressway could vary between £3.5bn and about £7bn.

Thousands of residents said they were opposed to Otmoor ever being used to build the potential expressway ahead of September’s decision.

More than 10,500 people signed a petition calling for the nature reserve to be ruled out as a potential path for the expressway.

The Government responded on September 12, 2018 and wrote: “The Government has announced the preferred corridor for the Oxford-Cambridge expressway and has ruled out the construction in the area of the Otmoor nature reserve.

“Protecting the environment and places people love is central to how the Government develops and builds a major new road such as this.”

Yet in the House of Commons on Friday, Mr Norman said: “We have not prejudged any decisions as to the number of lanes, number of junctions or other features of the road.”

Ms Moran asked: “So if [B1 and B3] are preferred routes, does that mean the ruling out of Otmoor is not absolute or absolute?”

Mr Norman replied: “As I’ve said, we haven’t made prejudgements. Our very strong preference is not to cross Otmoor.

“We have therefore selection options that do not do that. We have given very clear signals but it’s important to say that we’re at a relatively early stage of the process and therefore our preferred routes are just that and subject to further discussion, consultation and review.”

Residents will be able to have their say on the expressway later this year. The Government has said it wants the road to be open in 2030.

Although Highways England’s main objective for the new seems to be to connect England’s premier university cities together better by road, more work into how it could serve other areas will be undertaken.

England’s Economic Heartland has been tasked at looking at how the road could connect towns between Oxford and Cambridge.

Ian Hudspeth, the leader of Oxfordshire County Council, and Jeremy Long, the chairman of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), are members of the group.