Plans to dual A40 miss the mark

Plans to dual A40 miss the mark.

Planned works to the A40 that include turning the stretch between Witney and Eynsham into a dual carriageway will receive £102m from central government funding, it was announced in November.

The Treasury said this money would “unlock” the building of 5,050 new houses; information absent from the Oxfordshire County Council’s own announcement. More housing means more pressure on this heavily congested route, further undermining the efforts to improve it.

The package of measures fails to tackle the underlying growth in car travel.

Andrew Prosser, town councillor for Witney, believes the proposals are flawed. He says, “A dual carriageway at this location will only shift congestion further along and is unlikely to improve journey times. The money could be better spent addressing the underlying issue of too many car journeys being made on the route; for instance through providing a dedicated bus/rapid transit lane along the complete route, or delivering rail travel from Carterton to Oxford through Witney.”