4:50pm Wednesday 16th May 2012
Sir – The resistance to the Cogges Link Road seems to be to be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Something has to be done, and the proposed road is probably the least-bad option available.
The queue to reach the town centre often stretches along Newland as far as Church Lane. It is a certainty that Wood Green Hill, West End and Mill Street have similar queues.
A road siphoning off most of the traffic from Newland would take around a quarter of the traffic away from the Bridge Street junction, meaning that the three other incoming roads would flow more readily.
The fact of the matter is that, as is often the case with proposed new roads, the damage has already been done.
The time to forestall the building of this road is many years past. The town should have taken steps to prevent the housing and shop-building schemes which have been a feature of Witney over the past decade or so.
It should also have curtailed development of the surrounding villages.
Traffic problems always follow a rise in population as more people move into an area and discover a need to move about.
Local councils love these housing schemes, which mean increases in rate revenue as well as a pretext for greenwash charges and fines, while local people watch their tranquil towns and villages change into bustling, pressurised, congested and expensive places.
The fact is, the population of England is increasing and the South East is suffering from the consequences, while politicians avoid the subject.
England has a population density of almost 1,100 to the square mile, which, in the counties of the South East, rises to 1,800 per square mile.
People cannot live at such a density without causing environmental degradation.
If this continues, supporters of the environment will forever be fighting a losing battle against the encroachment of humanity.
If local people really care for their environment, then they have to confront the problem at its root. Opposing this road is like treating a rash while ignoring the disease.
Ralph Ingham-Johnson, Witney
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