OxCam Expressway confusion!

CORRECTION text in red: THERE seems to be considerable confusion about whether or not the new Tory Government has scrapped the proposed Expressway between Oxford and Cambridge, or merely intends to review it.

Inage courtesy of Bidwells.co.uk

The Oxford-Cambridge expressway is part of the £5.5bn Oxford-Cambridge manufacturing and research ‘brain-belt’ linking the two cities through the construction of infrastructure and a million new homes by 2050.

The government’s preferred route for the OxCam Expressway is a corridor ‘broadly aligned’ with the proposed East-West rail route from Abingdon to south Milton Keynes via Winslow. It is yet to be decided whether the route will pass west or east of Oxford. The government has stated that the road will create vital jobs, skills and housing.

Thame’s MP, John Howell tweeted during the election campaign: “Great news. After a lot of heavy campaigning the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway has been cancelled.” He repeated the same thing on Radio Oxford during a radio hustings.

Also during the election campaign, James Frederickson, the Tory candidate who eventually failed to take the seat from LIb Dem Leila Moran, wrote on his website under the heading ‘Expressway plans stopped due to public response to our survey’: ” “Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey. We received well over 1000 responses, It was this data that convinced the Secretary of State to scrap the expressway plans. Not only is this great news for local residents living under the blight of the Expressway proposals but this decision frees up the money to invest in the east/west rail and cycling infrastructure.” See LINK

But the Minister for Transport, Grant Shapps, said that if elected, a Conservative Government ‘would carry out a review’ of the project. Both Oxfordshire County Council and South Oxfordshire District Council have both voted not to support the expressway, but Cherwell District Council supports it.

Campaign group demands meeting with minister about government’s ‘Priority Review’

THE leading campaign group opposing the construction of the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway and associated one million new homes – the ‘No Expressway Group’ (NEG) – has written an open letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, demanding an urgent meeting to discuss his proposed ‘review’ into the road, NEG’s request to be part of any such review and that the review itself should be extended to include the one million houses target to 2050.

NEG is requesting this meeting because the only response to two letters, dated November 22, and December 4, and to speaking with Grant Shapps’ constituency office, as well as the matter being raised by them directly with his Chief of Staff, Nicholas Langley, on November 29, has been to ask NEG to get back in touch yet again after the General Election.

Review could be ‘a whitewash’

NEG spokesperson, Olivia Field, said: This is a matter of great concern to the communities all along the Oxford to Cambridge Arc, made worse by the huge uncertainty that both the delays in consultation and the pledge to review have created. Some people are concerned that a review could be a whitewash, as was the case for the HS2 review. Others are confused by some of the Conservative party candidates during the recent election period who said the expressway was ‘effectively cancelled’ but that this couldn’t be announced because of purdah. People need clarity of when any ‘review’ might happen, of what the approach of the review will be, of who will be involved and whether or not they will be represented by NEG in this process.’

This is not ‘game over’

Ms Field continued: ” Having still had no contact, other than to ask us to make contact again, we must now meet with Grant Shapps as a matter of urgency, to ensure he really understands the issues and concerns involved, to agree how NEG will be involved in any Ox-Cam Expressway review and to understand the timescale of future events.

“NEG is continuing to urge people not to see the Government’s announcement as ‘game over’. It’s not. It’s vital that as many local people as possible make their voices heard by supporting NEG at www.noexpressway.org where they can sign a petition to demand the Government abandons plans for the Ox-Can Expressway and associated over inflated housing targets.”

Wildlife concerns

Many wildlife and nature conservation groups are fearful of the effect on the environonment by the Expressway route, and BBOWT recently won a legal case against the goverment, arguing that it has failed to assess the environmental impact of its plans, before choosing the corridor of land within which the Expressway and related housing will be built.

NB Catch up with previous back stories to this topic HERE