“We’ve working on how to avoid an Expressway driving through the area….
Peter Rutt is chairing our Sub-Committee and has also begun co-ordinating a hastily-formed Expressway Action Group.
While no route has been selected for the Expressway all the South Oxfordshire parishes can be united to argue that the Northern Route (the upgrading and widening of the A34) is much cheaper and much more effective.
To this end Peter, Mike Mount and I hosted a gathering of the Parishes last night and a healthy turnout of 10 Parishes came to listen to Mike Tyce of the CPRE in the Village Hall. Elizabeth Gillespie attended (SODC are pro a Northern route, partly thanks to lobbying so far by the likes of Mike Tyce), as did Lorraine Lindsey-Gray from County (one of the very few County Cabinet members opposed to the southern routes for the Expressway).
We asked all the Parishes to get busy writing letters to all and sundry, as we expect a preferred route to be announced next month by the NIC. We have a matter of days to get emails away to the likes of the National Infrastructure Commission themselves and MPS and Councillors.
Cuddesdon and Denton have sent Parish Council letters and Bishop Humphrey has written, but we feel that the village should also mailshot hard over the next week – just as other Parishes have promised to do.
So I’m asking for your help…. I’m reliably informed you have a solid list of possible letter-writers and, as time is short, I was hoping you might assist us in spreading the word that pressure on some of the contacts listed below in Peter’s email to the surrounding Parishes will be very valuable, if we are to defeat the threat of an Expressway through our Parish, before things get ‘expensive’ (i.e. The early decision goes against us).
Please contact Peter (copied) if you want to discuss further, but I hope you can help us create some noise from the village over the next few days. Peter is on 874402 if you want to chat. I’m on 875551.
Best wishes,
Chris Luke, Chair of the Parish Council