CONCERN still surrounds plans for a 2,200-home garden village in Oxfordshire and its impact on roads - but supporters are calling the project a 'golden opportunity'.

The Government announced on Monday, January 2, that it would support plans to build the village - known as Oxfordshire Cotswold - to the north of Eynsham, with a pot of £6m to be shared between it and 13 other confirmed garden villages.

Since then transport campaigners and residents have warned the village will bring congestion on the A40 to crisis point if significant improvements are not made.

District councillor for Eynsham Peter Emery, who supports the garden village project, said it could offer a golden opportunity, but that something had to be done about the main road between west Oxfordshire and Oxford.

He said: “A lot of thought now needs to go into it so that it can be the best it can be, but this is a remarkable opportunity for the councils to do something good.

“With such a large tax gain to local authorities you would hope transport infrastructure would be addressed. We’ve got to do something. If all these new people are using the A40 to go to work it needs to be fixed."

Garden villages are not an extension of existing towns or villages, but instead intended to be settlements in their own right and are encouraged to develop their own community and identity.

The leader of WODC James Mills said last week that the project would open up other pots of funding for infrastructure, including the Government's £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund.

He also said that the science business park proposed with the village would give people a viable alternative to driving to work in Oxford.

But some residents were less optimistic the problem of the A40 would be properly addressed.

Dave Dunphy, of Witney, said on Facebook: "It's a stupid idea until they invest in solving the A40 traffic chaos.

"Once again they are putting the horse before the cart - incompetent planning making locals lives a misery on the road."

Pat Chirgwin added: "Let's get the infrastructure right - buses, doctors, schools - to say nothing of the A40, which will become a car park.

"Don't tell me that everyone in the new garden village will work on the industrial estate. They won't.

"The current road system can barely cope as it stands - so adding another 4,000 to 5,000 cars won't help."

The garden village forms part of a total of 15,950 homes set to be built in west Oxfordshire by 2031, as part of its draft Local Plan.

Of those, 2,750 make up the district’s contribution to Oxford’s unmet housing need. A further 1,000 homes are proposed for land to the west of Eynsham in the plan.

The Government’s announcement follows WODC making an ‘expression of interest’ to provide land for a garden village.

Oxfordshire Cotswold will become the third garden settlement in Oxfordshire, after Didcot and Bicester were awarded Garden Town status in the last two years.