What an interesting year this has been.

Nobody last January would have thought we would end the year with a Conservative government propped up by a cadre of northern Irish MPs.

At least in the recent budget the Chancellor pledged £215 million for Oxfordshire over the next five years to build infrastructure, deliver new homes and boost economic productivity, providing all councils can work together to agree a strategy.

£150 million is earmarked for road improvements.

It’s a handy sum, but it won’t go very far towards alleviating the congestion on our roads, let alone provide the level of improvement that we are going to need to support the thousands of new homes that are due to be built in Bicester and across the county.

The announcement of a commitment for phase 2 of East West rail to Milton Keynes, without any agreement on how to deal with the level crossing in Bicester, is bad news for the town, but symptomatic of the approach to developing new rail lines: lots of hype, but a failure to address some key challenges.

In addition to the budget announcement, the County is also bidding for money from the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund. Some of this will go towards improving our congested roads, but the money comes as part of a package which includes more housing.

So although we can expect improvements, it will also mean more cars on our roads, and a continuing struggle to get in and around Oxford every day unless radical action is taken.

The theory is that with an influx of money and better roads, more jobs will come to Oxfordshire, including Bicester, and people will be less inclined to travel towards Oxford and London to get to work, as they will be able to work closer to home.

For several decades, pundits have been talking about people using technology to work flexibly from home rather than travelling.

The problem with that theory is that it has not yet been born out in reality.

Bicester is already developing as a key commuter town and East West rail will just add further destinations to the list of possible locations suitable to commute to.

So I remain unconvinced that building new houses and making marginal improvements to our roads will have the effect intended.

Indeed, the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway, which the Chancellor also promised in the Budget, could act as a magnet, drawing cars towards it and creating an even greater number of journeys.

If the northern route is selected for the Expressway, with little or no democratic involvement in the process, then the implications for Bicester may be significant.

What we need is radical thinking and an acceptance that people will continue to travel on a daily basis.

Bicester is an affluent area with little unemployment, and a growing number of residents who commute. Investment in public transport infrastructure must be part of the solution. It’s expensive, but we must grasp the nettle.