VILLAGERS in North Oxfordshire have warned their home will become a rat-run if thousands of lorries are allowed to drive through every week as part of the HS2 project.

Wardington, four miles north of Banbury, is on the proposed route for construction lorries travelling north to help build the new high speed rail link between London and Birmingham.

The A361 passes through the village, which is expected to carry vehicles travelling up from the M40 near Banbury.

Parish council vice-chairman Nigel Bankes has set up an HS2 action group, urging the government to change the route for HGVs. He said: “Not only will all the lorries clog up the main road, it will also block all the side roads from the A361. The area will just become a rat-run for vehicles.

“There is a safety aspect too.

“Our pavements are very narrow and if people are walking there all it will take is a lorry to swerve and there will be trouble.

“The noise and fumes caused by lorries will increase enormously and it will damage what is a really rural area .”

The retired brewer added that at peak times more than 1,000 lorry journeys could be made along the route every day.

HS2 vehicles would be able to use the route between 8am and 6pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. But lorries carrying excavated material from the site would be allowed to use the road at any time.

Mr Bankes, 69, said: “People will not be able to get in or out of our village. It’s a beautiful place and it will be shame if people can’t come and visit it.”

On January 18, the village’s HS2 action group, led by Mr Bankes, visited a parliamentary select committee on the scheme to petition against the number of HGVs travelling through the village.

They were joined by Banbury MP Victoria Prentis who said: “There are a number of significant issues, with several villages suffering exceptionally acute problems, including noise, impacts on bridleway, and visual intrusion into landscapes.”