West Oxfordshire’s residents have for too long suffered on a daily basis with persistent congestion along the A40.
In December 2021, following a hard-fought campaign which included debates in the House of Commons and a visit from the then Secretary of State for Transport to the A40, I was very pleased to have helped secure two major funding packages from the Government for Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) to deliver the largest investment into the A40 in a generation.
This included a £35million contribution from the Department for Transport (DfT) to build an 850 space Park and Ride at Eynsham with a dedicated access junction including a roundabout for easy access from either direction of the A40, as well as a new eastbound bus lane from Eynsham to Wolvercote. These components of the plan were fully funded with the Government providing the majority of the money, despite the A40 being a County Council road and therefore their responsibility to maintain and upgrade. OCC agreed, in exchange, to deliver the full scheme within the funding envelope, taking into account inflationary pressures that can occur with lengthy projects – and agreed that any expenditure over and above that limit would be the Council’s sole responsibility. The funding was released on this basis.
On top of this, OCC was later awarded a £107 million package from Homes England under the HIF2 Smart Corridor consisting of: integrated bus lanes on the westbound lane, an extension of the dual carriageway, access to Witney as well as the Duke’s Cut proposals, and enhanced walking and cycling infrastructure between Witney and Oxford.
However, at the end of 2022 the County Council stated it could no longer deliver the full scheme. Following the frustrating news that the wider A40 improvements and delivery of an access junction to the Park & Ride as well as the eastbound bus lane were now subject to an indefinite hold, I met with the team at OCC to discuss these delays and to make clear to them how unacceptable this is to West Oxfordshire’s residents.
In response to meetings I held at County Hall, I have now met with colleagues at the highest levels of government - the Housing Minister, Lee Rowley MP, the Minister for Roads, Guy Opperman MP and most recently the Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper MP who came to visit the Eynsham Park and Ride to see the difficulties for himself.
I continue to raise residents’ very grave concerns over the Liberal Democrat & Green led County Council’s handling of the A40 upgrades and their ability to deliver large infrastructure with public funds.
We are now in a position where our Lib Dem & Green-led County Council appears to have run out of the funds to deliver the essential components of the scheme, in particular the access junction and eastbound bus lane, which they are obligated to deliver – & without which their completed Park and Ride is of no use at all.
I have further meetings scheduled in the coming weeks to find out what exactly has gone wrong here and how best to move forward. In the meantime, I am doing all I can to keep the pressure on our Lib Dem & Green led County Council to get on and deliver what West Oxfordshire’s residents rightly expect as soon as possible.
