MILLIONS of pounds earmarked for the failed Cogges Link Road plan for Witney have been spent elsewhere in the county, the Witney Gazette can reveal.

Oxfordshire County Council has spent £2.8m of the money left over when the link road plan was rejected by the Government after a public inquiry two years ago.

Campaigners said the money should have been kept to pay instead for an alternative project to turn the Shores Green junction on the A40 east of Witney into a full four-way interchange.

This scheme is estimated to cost between £2.8m and £4.2m.

Like the link road, it would allow drivers to make journeys across Witney avoiding congested streets in the town centre.

The council set aside £10.3m for the link road and spent £1.75m on preparations, including roadworks in Station Lane and the cost of the public inquiry that led to the scheme being rejected by the Department for Transport.

A total of £6.9m allocated from money given as part of the conditions for planning consent from developers of projects including the Madley Park housing estate was put towards the road scheme.

Of this, £3.6m had to be given back to developers under planning law after the scheme was rejected, as it had not been spent within 10 years.

But the council has spent £860,000 on improvements to the junction of Ducklington Lane and Station Lane.

That left £4.1m from the original budget of £10.3m, but documents seen by the Witney Gazette show that about £2.8m of this has now been spent elsewhere.

Witney Labour councillor Duncan Enright, who has campaigned for the Shores Green proposals to be implemented as a matter of urgency, said: “I don’t think that’s reasonable behaviour and they should spend that £4m on Shores Green.

“If they have that much money, then why can’t they push ahead and go with the Shores Green project now, rather than waiting for further funds?

“There was also a promise made at the time of the public inquiry that they would move straight ahead with whatever project was approved, which they haven’t done yet.”

Mr Enright, who represents Witney East ward on West Oxfordshire District Council and Witney Town Council, has previously said a four-way junction at Shores Green was urgently needed because it would give drivers going across the town an alternative to using Bridge Street and its junctions with West End, Wood Green Hill and Newland.

Witney Gazette: Ian Hudspeth

Ian Hudspeth

However, county council leader and Woodstock Conservative councillor Ian Hudspeth said: “One of the things that we’ve had to do is reprioritise all money, to get the best use out of it, so it’s not just money sitting in the bank account doing nothing.

“The £3m has been spent on a variety of transport schemes across Oxfordshire.

“We require developer funding for Shores Green, as the money isn’t there for it to be done now.”

Mr Hudspeth was unable to be specific on which projects had been funded using the money.

A further 3,500 homes are expected to be built in Witney over the next 15 years and could help to pay for improvements at the Shores Green junction through a series of new developer contributions towards infrastructure for the town.

The county council’s strategic manager for design and safety improvements, John Murray, said: “Due to pressures and shortfalls on other capital schemes, any remaining county funds and most of the Section 106 developer contributions have been redistributed to other schemes in the capital programme.”