No Relief for the A40 in Sight

2.19.14pm GMT Wed 22nd Feb 2006

The County Council has lost £12m of expected Government funding for transport schemes for the next five years due to the use of a new formula working to Oxfordshire's disadvantage. It has lost a further £500,000 due to poor performance on bus use, bus punctuality, rural bus accessibility and excessive traffic growth.

As a result, work to relieve congestion and delays on the A40 in North Oxford has been postponed beyond 2011. Only last year, people were promised that work on the Cutteslowe roundabout would start in early 2007, with work to relieve congestion at the Wolvercote roundabout starting two years later.

Local Councillor, Liberal Democrat Jean Fooks, said, "I am taken aback to hear that nothing will be done to relieve this very serious problem for at least five years. Buses, including the Park and Ride ones, are already being held up as they try to cross the A40 into Oxford. With the new Westgate Centre coming in perhaps 2010 and the hospital developments already underway, this can only get worse. The Labour government clearly does not understand the huge pressures on the A40 caused by growth in both jobs and housing. Improving the A40 has long been a Conservative priority, but now they are in power their priorities seem to have changed."