Latest News

2010

Witney Country Park Town Green application to be decided by a Public Inquiry in June 2010.

Oxfordshire County Council has given notice that the Town Green application will be decided by a Public Inquiry in June 2010. CPRE is now looking at ways of raising the money to engage legal representation so that our case can be put as forcefully as possible.

Members of CPRE West Oxon and Witney First made an application in the autumn of 2009 to have the Witney Country Park registered as a Town Green.

If the application is successful, it would see the 70-acre plot of land from Farm Mill Lane to the A40 between the east and west tributaries of the River Windrush, which is part of Witney Country Park, turned into a Town Green. Any development of the land would be legally prohibited, striking a massive blow to the proposed Cogges Link Road development. The proposed CLR will destroy 30 acres of Country Park. CPRE believe the loss of this recreational area, with its easy access and quiet tranquillity, would be extremely detrimental to the town.

2009

16 February: Oxfordshire County Council passes the application to build the Cogges Link Road.

Oxfordshire County Council passed the application to build the Cogges Link Road on Monday 16 February.

While CPRE West Oxon and Witney First, who have campaigned tirelessly against the road, were disappointed at the council's decision, the story is not yet over since the landowner, James Mawle, has stated that he will apply for judicial review and claim the maximum compensation when subject to compulsory purchase. The Town Green application will also have to be determined which will hold things up further.

20 January: Campaigners against the Cogges Link Road launch a surprise Town Green application to stop the development.

The CPRE/Witney First protest group have announced it will be submitting a Town/Village Green application within the next week. This would see the 70-acre plot of land from Farm Mill Lane to the A40 between the east and west tributaries of the River Windrush — which is part of Witney Country Park — turned into a Town/Village Green if it was successful. Any development of the land would be legally prohibited, striking a massive blow to the proposed link road development. The proposed CLR will destroy 30 acres of Country Park.

David Condon, the spokesman for the group, said: “We want to make sure that they can’t build on that land. If we make it a Town Green, it is another obstacle in their way. Our hope is that by getting the Town Green status for the land it will block the development."

This latest move by campaigners comes just five weeks before Oxfordshire County Council is due to make decision on the plans. This application will have to be considered before a decision can be made. Should this delay the decision until June, when a new Local Development Framework comes into place, the county council would have to submit a new planning application.

Public consultation into the link road ended last month, and leaked figures showed the public was ten-to-one opposed to the scheme.

Mr Condon said the land had been well used by Witney residents for the past 20 years, since it was bought by the town council to form part of the country park.

He added: “The loss of this recreational area, with its easy access and quiet tranquillity, would be extremely detrimental to the town."

• For more information see the Witney First website: http://www.witneyfirst.com/
• See Witney Gazette (20 January).

What you can do:

CPRE/Witney First is calling on the people of Witney to prove that the Witney Meadows Country Park has been, and continues to be used by the people of Witney for well over 20 years. There is a questionnaire on the website which will be submitted as part of the application to have the Park designated as a Village/Town Green, to protect it from development and keep it open to the people of Witney.

• Please complete and return the questionnaire on the Witney First website: http://www.witneyfirst.com/. Your response is crucial to the success of the Village/Town Green application!

2008

December 2008: Campaigners against Cogges Link Road start new attack.

The CPRE/First Witney protest group who are protesting against the £15m Cogges Link Road have issued a new attack, detailing the scheme’s flooding risk and environmental impact on the River Windrush water meadows in Witney.

On Monday 15 December, lowlands planning sub-committee voted unanimously to give its support to Oxfordshire County Council which has finished its public consultation on the Cogges Link Road scheme, and is expected to make a decision at its planning and regulation committee in February next year.

While West Oxfordshire District Council are backing the Cogges Link Road scheme, councillors are, however, telling the county to ensure that there are flood alleviation measures in place on the River Windrush floodplain, plus noise reduction surfacing and tree planting to protect Cogges estate residents from noise nuisance.

County planning manager, Rob Dance, said: “Oxfordshire County Council has not formally released any figures relating to the consultation. Responses are still being collated. These will be released before consideration of the planning application.”

However, the CPRE is aware that on November 27 (a day before the end of consultation) they had over 1,200 objections and up to 170 in support of the planning application.

The CPRE is pressing for an alternative scheme, a four-way junction at Shores Green on the A40 Witney bypass. County planning officers, however, maintain the CLR, though 1.8 kilometres long and more expensive, will provide better relief for the town’s Bridge Street bottleneck.

• For more information see the Witney First website: http://www.witneyfirst.com/
• See: Oxford Times (9 December).
• See Oxford Times (18 December).

What you can do:

• GET INVOLVED with the campaign against Cogges Link Road. To find out how email: Cogges@witneyfirst.com

November 2008: CPRE West Oxfordshire District claims huge support for its campaign against Cogges Link Road proposal.

Campaigners are claiming bumper public support against the building of Witney’s £15m Cogges link road.

In a public consultation over the scheme, West Oxfordshire Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said more than 1,000 Witney residents have so far recorded their objections, with only four showing support.

David Condon, CPRE spokesman, said: “I got the figures from the county council’s planning department in the middle of last week. It is the latest they have and it obviously shows the way people are thinking.”

• See: Oxford Times.
• See: Witney Gazette.

September 2008: CPRE West Oxfordshire District launches a fierce attack on the planned Cogges Link Road.

CPRE West Oxfordshire District has launched a fierce attack on the planned Cogges Link Road. On September 9th, CPRE submitted its letter of opposition to the £15m scheme to the OCC, along with more than 600 letters of objection. CPRE believes the Cogges Link Road will bring noise, pollution and congestion to the residents of Cogges; bring congestion to Station Lane and Witan Way; degrade the Windrush watermeadows; and do nothing to help through traffic.

The CPRE favours an alternative scheme, a four-way junction on the A40 Witney bypass at Shores Green. Forecasts for this show a 48 per cent cut in traffic in Bridge Street, but hardly any effect on traffic in Station Lane. It also favours another four-way junction on the A40, west of the town at Curbridge, making use of the main road as a way from one side of Witney to the other without cluttering town centre roads. CPRE is to press for a public inquiry into the county's decision to forge ahead with the Cogges Link Road.

The county council announced four weeks ago its plans to go ahead with the Cogges Link — first put on the drawing board more than 20 years ago. It accepts there may be a public inquiry, and that, if built, the earliest it would be open would be 2012.

As part of public consultation it is holding an exhibition on the scheme at Witney's Marlborough Hotel on October 8, 3pm to 9pm, October 10, 10am to 6pm, and October 11, 10am to 1pm.

A decision on the actual planning application will not be made until January 2009.

CPRE West Oxfordshire is encouraging those opposed to the Cogges Link Road to send their objections to: John Hamilton, OCC, Speedwell Street, Oxford, OX1 1NE, before 28 November 2008.

• See: CPRE West Oxon District letter of objection to OCC.
• Click here to download a form.
• See Witney Gazette.
• See Oxford Times.
• For more information and latest news see: http://www.witneyfirst.com/

What you can do:

• GO TO  the exhibition which Oxfordshire County Council will be holding in the Marlborough Hotel on Market Square in Witney on: Thursday 9 October 2008, 1 - 8pm,  Friday 10 October 2008, 10am - 6pm, and Saturday 11 October 2008, 10am - 1pm.
• VISIT the exhibition proposing the alternative scheme which will be open at the same times in the Corn Exchange opposite the Marlborough Hotel.
• ASK QUESTIONS at the exhibitions and make up your mind about which will be the least damaging option to help Witney’s congestion problems.
• AND if you have not already done so, SEND IN your comments to Oxfordshire County Council – you could use the pro-forma here – we now have until Tuesday 28 November 2008 for your views to be taken into account.
• GET INVOLVED with the campaign against Cogges Link Road. To find out how email: Cogges@witneyfirst.com

March 2008

The long-awaited countdown to a Cogges Link Road, Witney, is about to start. Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet was urged to go ahead with a planning application for the £16.4m road at a meeting on 27 March. It is seen as vital to the traffic network in the fast expanding west Oxfordshire town, providing a second river crossing over the Windrush and easing congestion in Bridge Street.

But the road's construction will require compulsory purchase of land and objections are anticipated, triggering a public inquiry already planned for this autumn. Planning consent for the road was given 11 years ago, but it did not go ahead because of lack of money.

CPRE West Oxfordshire is disappointed that OCC have decided go ahead with a new planning application for the Cogges Link Road. CPRE remain convinced that this will have a negative imapact on the local environment and, while it may alleviate some of the traffic problems in Bridge Street, will do little to ease Witney's traffic problems as a whole and , indeed, is likely to create new ones at other points in the town centre. As in the past CPRE will be vigorously opposing this application.

February 2008

The Witney District of CPRE were delighted that at a recent meeting of the Witney Town Council Traffic Advisory Group, County Councillor David Robertson, cabinet member for transport, acknowledged that the Cogges Link scheme, long opposed by CPRE, would be treated as one the alternatives for consideration by OCC rather than a fait accompli. OCC will shortly complete their assessment of the environmental impact of all the alternatives and vote on the schemes. Whichever scheme is chosen there is likely to be a public inquiry.

September 2007

The campaign against this environmentally destructive link road has been underway for more than ten years. Although it still remains the County Council's preferred option, a recent online poll by the Oxford Times showed that people are almost evenly divided over whether the planned project should go ahead or a four-way junction built instead at Shores Green on the Witney bypass. David Robertson, County Council cabinet member for transport told the newspaper that a decision on the road will depend on an environmental impact assessment, which will take into account its impact on flooding. The road may not be built at all as a result.

June 2006

The Witney district of CPRE continues its battle against the proposed Cogges Link Road (CLR), proposed by Oxfordshire County Council and endorsed by West Oxfordshire District Council, writes Gillian Salway. The supporters of the scheme see it as the only way to reroute the through traffic in the north and northwest of the town centre, alleviating congestion and providing an opportunity to revitalise part of the town blighted by traffic pollution. Its opponents, and CPRE is joined in its opposition by the Environment Agency, see it as inflicting great environmental damage on the watermeadows of the Windrush and propose a viable alternative which would provide the greater part of the traffic benefits of CLR.

After the inspector into the Local Plan recommended last year that the CLR scheme should be dropped, OCC is conducting further studies into its feasibility, but maintains that it is still the preferred option.
What is particularly frustrating is the determination of both WODC and OCC to stick with a scheme which is now some 25 years old, despite major changes in Witney which pose serious questions about how effective it would be in solving traffic problems. Now one of the main congestion areas is at the south of the town where the traffic from the industrial estates joins the main road network—yet the CLR would deliver even more traffic to this point in the town. Through traffic from the north wishing to access the A40 would be better served by a new junction to the northeast. This was not considered 25 years ago but it feasible now that the A40 is no longer classified as a trunk road. Yet in our dealings with the authorities we have been unable to engage in any reasonable discussion of these problems and alternatives.

We are finding it very difficult to get hold of the information—for example on traffic flows in the south of the town—which we are sure will support our case. It is difficult to escape the feeling that they would see any change of policy as a loss of face and therefore to be avoided at any cost, an attitude which makes any debate confrontational from the start.

The County Council will make a decision on the scheme later in 2006. We will be lobbying hard to ensure that the decision makers get a full and fair picture of the choices before them.

Gillian Salway, Chairman, CPRE West Oxfordshire. June 2006