After a 10-year campaign plans for a new westbound junction on the A40 to improve access to Witney have at last been approved.

Westbound slip roads will be built at Shores Green, which connects Oxford Hill and the A40.

It means traffic from northeast Witney will be able to join the A40 going west towards Burford without travelling through the town centre.

The improvements are expected to ease town centre congestion and reduce air quality problems, particularly at Bridge Street - one of two areas in West Oxfordshire falling short of national air quality standards.

In addition, it will help support major new housing development sites in east and north Witney as part of the West Oxfordshire Local Plan.

Oxford Mail: Oxford Hill, looking down to the Shores Green junction

The Compulsory Purchase and Side Roads Orders were agreed at cabinet last month. 

The total cost of the scheme is estimated to be £13.9million funded by a combination of Housing and Growth Deal (HGD) funds and Section 106 developer contributions.

Witney councillor Duncan Enright has campaigned for over 10 years to get the junction built. 

In that time the proposed costs have trebled from about £4.5million as building the junction "got stuck in traffic repeatedly".

He said: "I have been supporting this for over a decade and it is one of the great privileges of my career that now I am seeing this through to completion.

"I hope it will begin construction next year and be working in 2025, though these types of schemes take an awful lot of work."

The county council's planning and regulation committee heard that concerns have been raised about rat running and increased traffic in South Leigh and High Cogges and the parish council has requested traffic calming measures.

But Eynsham councillor Dan Levy reported the parish council "really are content with what’s been discussed".

He said: "I do think, however, though that when this junction is built, assuming you give it approval, it will have a fairly dramatic impact on traffic on the south of the A40 particularly as the A40 currently is blocked up a lot of the time and that gives temptations for rat running.

"And when it’s rebuilt as part the HIF2 scheme there will obviously be delays during that process as well so it’s really important that the county council keep an eye on what’s happening south of the A40 both in South Leigh and in some of the other parishes including Eynsham and in Standlake I think there will be an impact."

However, he said he was "very hopeful" there will be two great effects on air quality and bus times within Witney itself.

He said: "The objective is to make Bridge Street clear of some of the traffic that is currently there and it’s a huge problem at the moment so I’m very hopeful this junction will do what it’s supposed to do and clear Witney and make bus travel and bike travel in Witney better.

"The other thing is once the East Witney development is properly designed and approved, and it’s taking a very long time to get there, then I’m very much hopeful this will create a new bike route from this junction into Witney from Eynsham and South Leigh into Witney."

Cllr Judy Roberts asked whether the South Leigh traffic calming measures should be carried out separately or added to the county council's maintenance schedule.

These would include some additional 20mph repeater signs and road markings, a speed indicator device and posts, five village ‘gateway’ features, four single build-out features and a single narrow priority feature with a pedestrian crossing.

Public consultation for these measures will be required to demonstrate community support.

Cllr Levy said: "It’s a difficult question. South Leigh itself is effectively a single track road through the village and out to Barnard Gate. I'm not sure what additional traffic calming measures besides those proposed would have an effect.

He added: "What we absolutely need to make sure happens is HGVs are kept out of the village. The one thing that isn’t there at the moment is a ban on HGVs on this road. I think in the past there has never been a need but an HGV ban on this road, but keep an eye on that. I think that’s probably enough at this stage."

He said he would "prefer" to have traffic calming measures as a condition but, he said "I trust the county council as the highways authority not to let the situation get out of hand."

The plans were approved subject to conditions and the committee also resolved that the county council enter a unilateral undertaking to provide traffic calming measures for South Leigh.