Green councillors are renewing their call for Oxfordshire County Council to pause and review a major road scheme around Didcot.
This comes as the government’s Climate Change Committee urged a systematic review of all current and future road-building projects, and to allow only schemes that “meaningfully support cost-effective delivery of Net Zero and climate adaptation” to go forward. [1]
Last week, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet agreed to progress to the next stage of the scheme for detailed design and early works. But Greens argue that the CCC’s damning assessment of government inaction on climate, coupled with continuing high inflation and rising interest rates, makes the HIF scheme financially and environmentally impossible to justify.
Cllr Sam Casey-Rerhaye, South Oxfordshire District Councillor for Sandford & Wittenhams says “Greens have been saying for years that there is a pressing need for high-quality transport infrastructure to meet the growing demands of the Oxfordshire community, but although there have been improvements to the initial plans, this scheme is still at its heart a set of roads. It won’t solve the problem of too much traffic and is quite simply unacceptable in the twenty-first century. Oxfordshire County Council has a bold vision to provide infrastructure that puts people first instead of cars, and I’d like to see them commit to delivering this vision for Didcot and the surrounding Science Vale area.”
Cllr Sarah James, Vale District Councillor for Hendreds ward, added “We need faster public transport, joined-up ticketing, better rail connections and an expanded network to keep cyclists and walkers safe and give them confidence to switch from cars. We know this works, and as a global centre for science and innovation, our area deserves a world-leading transport solution, not another dual carriageway. We’ve already seen the County Council pause the Witney HIF scheme, and they need to do the same here.”
Cllr Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member for Environment and Climate says: “This scheme has always been a difficult leftover from the previous Conservative administration’s deals with government. The world has changed since then, and climate change impacts are happening now. So when the UK’s own Climate Change Committee asks for a pause and review of all road schemes, it has to be the final clarion call for us to make sure this legacy scheme matches our new priorities. We need to take car traffic away from routes through local communities, leaving them clear for public and active transport. In addition, we need to work with Homes England, with the District Councils and developers who are responsible for building homes and self-sufficient communities, and with rail and bus operators to create real alternatives to private car use, transforming the HIF scheme to create the future not mirror the past.”
