RESIDENTS say they will fight any moves to widen the A34 that could see homes in Botley and North Hinksey bulldozed.

They spoke out after the Oxford Mail reported yesterday that council leaders are looking at widening the road to ease congestion.

Oxfordshire Growth Board wants to study the expansion between junction 9 of the M40 and the A34 Chilton interchange, near Didcot, on both sides.

Councils could use compulsory purchase orders to buy the homes without owners’ permission to make way for development.

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Rachael Monks, of Montagu Road, Botley, which is next to the A34, said: “I suspect there would be plenty of local opposition and Botley would not go down without a fight.

“In all honesty I’m not worrying about it until there is more concrete information. It's all speculation at this point.”

The 31-year-old mother-of-two added: “Generally I wish that more effort was put into reducing the number of cars on our roads in the first place, rather than finding ways to encourage more of them.

“I know it’s pie in the sky thinking, but cars are not the only form of transportation and this society very much panders to drivers.”

North Hinksey fruit and veg salesman Tony Wood said: “It’s a sledgehammer approach to cracking the nut.

“I would say there would be significant opposition to this; the local population is getting stretched pretty thin.

“They are coming at us in all directions, whether it be the West Way development, or squeezing 14 flats on to a postage stamp.”

“My gut feeling is that they really should be looking at innovative ways to reduce the traffic load rather than increasing the road’s capacity.

“They should be making better use of existing transport services, particularly buses.”

The growth board – made up of Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council and four district councils – wants a feasibility study into the proposal.

The report was compiled by the county council, Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Oxford University and the Oxford Innovation Steering Board.

But Terry Reynolds, managing director of Bicester haulage firm DA Clayton Transport, said: “It would be a great idea to widen the A34.

“Our vehicles are stuck in traffic on the A34 southbound from Bicester between 7am and 9am every morning and it’s the same story coming back northbound in the evening.”

Your views

Comments from our website:

  • “It’ll be worth every penny spent on it, while you’re at it stick dual lanes all along the A40 from the Woodstock roundabout to Witney.” 
  •  “If thousands of new homes are going to be built in the area, then with the best will in the world, and the best public transport – which there won’t be – there will be many more car journeys every day, at peak times. The A34 can’t cope now – and it will get a lot worse.”
  • “It might be cheaper just to pay people not to drive on it. More realistically they could use the £800m to improve the rail that parallels it from Bicester to Didcot anyway or expand the rail-freighting ability eastwards from Bicester. And introduce some more rail Park and Ride facilities for example.”
  • “The answer is to scrap HS2 [high-speed rail link] and use some of that money to build an M34 from the M4 at Newbury, to bypass Oxford on the east side and then join up with the M40 at Wheatley/Thame. Therefore, no buying up and knocking down good housing stock at Botley in order to widen the A34.”


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