THE former manager of Oxford’s treasured Shotover County Park fears a £3bn new expressway could plough through it.

The Oxford to Cambridge expressway could be built by 2030 and three broad corridors where the road might go were shown to councillors last month.

Oliver de Soissons, who managed Shotover between 1988 and 2004, said he had only been alerted about a fortnight ago to the maps which revealed the beauty spot was not off limits.

He said the site, operated by Oxford City Council, was ‘a little bit of heaven’ and must be protected.

Mr de Soissons said: "My main concern is that it’s on [Highways England’s] maps and they’re not telling us so we need to shout.

“I think it has 150,000 visitors a year – assuming two visitors per car. It’s incredibly important to local people so what would be lost are memories of playing in the sandpit as children and it being a little bit of heaven on the edge of Oxford.

“It’s known by local people and it’s an incredibly loved resource.”

He said Shotover Hill, the song by Oxford band Supergrass, showed that people ‘feel a calmness in the environment’ and that the song ‘sums it up’.

Consultation between Highways England and private ‘stakeholder’ groups over which broad corridor they would favour closes on Thursday.

Since three broad route options for the road were first unveiled in 2016, all consultations have been held in private.

On the maps unveiled last month, two of the three expressway routes seem to include Shotover Country Park.

The first route runs south of Oxford, towards Thame, Aylesbury, Leighton Buzzard and Bedford, then runs towards St Neots and to Cambridge.

The second route smothers the east and west side of Oxford, before running up to Bicester, then Winslow and south of Milton Keynes before running in the same way as the first.

The third is broadly similar to the second in Oxfordshire – but covers less of an area south of Buckingham, surrounding the town instead.

Last month, Vale of White Horse District Council leader Matthew Barber wrote to the Department for Transport urging greater consultation ahead of a final decision on the preferred corridor. That is expected in July.

Highways England said it remained ‘committed to a full consultation’ – but only once it has picked its top corridor.

It has failed to calm worries of the Expressway Action Group, which has the support of 33 parish councils around Oxfordshire.

Its co-ordinator Peter Rutt said the narrower corridors showed ‘no villages are out of danger’ and that it had looked to step up its opposition to the road.

The county’s Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust has called for an environmental assessment to be carried out before the road’s corridor is picked.

It said it was worried that one million new homes along the corridor, which could be built by 2050, would damage green spaces.

Any development of the expressway has the support of the Government, after the National Infrastructure Commission said it was a ‘key transport project’ which needed ‘to be given momentum’.

It said work needed to include a link between the M1 and Oxford by 2030. The expressway would be a vital part of that.

Key players in Oxfordshire have recently said they have been unimpressed by the some of the ways work has been carried out so far.

Bev Hindle, Oxfordshire County Council’s strategic director for communities, told the Oxfordshire Growth Board that Highways England’s approach asking for a corridor was ‘not particularly helpful’.

He said the council had been asked to name a preferred corridor – but he added that it had been asked to do so ‘without [being given] an evidence base’.