A VILLAGE frustrated at being used as a ‘slip road to the M40’ has begun talks with Oxfordshire County Council on its Neighbourhood Plan.

Wheatley residents who have already spent 23 months drawing up the local development blueprint began their long-awaited discussions with the highways authority on January 19.

In his January newsletter, neighbourhood plan committee chairman John Fox said he appreciated that supporters had been patient waiting for talks to begin on what many feel is the most important problem to tackle.

He wrote: “On January 19 we and South Oxfordshire District Council began the talks with Oxfordshire CC on infrastructure and roads.

“We can now share our own community findings in a village which basically is a slip road to the A40 and the M40.

“No rash promises from us, but keep us in your thoughts in these important talks.

“Neighbourhood Plans have many flaws, but were it not for the last two years’ work, the door would not have been open for such talks at all.”

Once the neighbourhood plan team have added their wishlist of road rules and traffic improvements, they hope to put the final plan to a village-wide referendum this Spring.

The news about the plan comes weeks after Oxford Brookes University submitted its planning application to build a 500-home estate on its Wheatley Campus, just over the A40 from the main village.

That is set to be decided by South Oxfordshire District Council in due course.