Oxford to Cambridge Expressway 'no walk in the park' for highways bosses

Calls to scrap plans for the £3.5bn road, which would plough through large parts of Oxfordshire's countryside, have intensified this week after Highways England met with stakeholders on Wednesday

A petition to scrap the expressway entirely has also been launched and argues the need for such a road has never proven or consulted on.

The project's director said it had received 1,000 layers of data and information relating to environmental constraints ahead of a decision on its preferred route in early July.

It will now map those along each of the three possible 'corridors' before making a choice.

Project director Matt Stafford admitted that having reviewed all the responses, there were environmental issues with all of the options on the table.

He said: "If you take environmental constraints: we have 1,000 layers of data and information and we need to map that against each corridor.

"All of the corridors have difficult parts relating to environmental issue - it’s no walk in the park.

"It’s about working out which corridor provides the best option."

The Highways England boss insisted that no decision had yet been made on the route and denied Highways England had been told by Government which corridor to choose.

Despite his insistence, it is understood Oxfordshire's key players prefer Route A, which would run between Milton Keynes and the A34 south of Oxfordshire via Aylesbury and the M40 near Thame, and through a number of South Oxfordshire villages.

But Route C, between Milton Keynes and the A34 at Bicester and tearing apart the Otmoor Basin, has been preferred by South Oxfordshire District Council.

The Campaign for Rural England (CPRE) Oxfordshire director Helen Marshall said it was 'astonishing' that Wednesday was only the first time interested parties had been gathered together.

She said: "Quite a few people asked about the lack of public engagement and their response seemed to be 'we need to get on with selecting the corridor quickly so we can consult the public after that'.

"We felt it was a self-congratulatory event that was completely divorced from the public concerns.

"Whichever corridor is chosen, the impacts will be devastating given the massive development that is associated with the expressway.

"We consider it inappropriate that Highways England, a specialist transport body, is effectively making decisions, behind closed doors, on the location of large-scale growth affecting a whole region of England."

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) said all three corridors could have 'devastating' impacts on wildlife sites and the natural environment in Oxfordshire.

Its extensive response revealed that Route B would rip through 8,474 hectares of 'priority habitat', with C destroying 7,399 hectares and A tearing up 3,547 hectares.

The trust called for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to be carried out to enable a full public consultation to be held.

Its director of conservation and education for Oxfordshire, Neil Clennell, said: "If the SEA is not undertaken before a preferred corridor is selected, the opportunity to fully scrutinise the comparative impacts of all possible Expressway routes will be lost."

BBOWT's response said it had serious concerns about route A - through large parts of South Oxfordshire - but that route B was their biggest concern, potentially passing through Wytham Woods and the Otmoor Basin, which contains a 1,000-acre RSPB wetland reserve.

It also had serious concerns over route C, which takes largely the same route through the county.

More than 5,000 people have already signed a petition against the expressway ploughing through Otmoor and thousands of people are expected to protest at the annual Otmoor Challenge next Saturday.