Town Green bid may be the last chance for many (From Witney Gazette)

Town Green bid may be the last chance for many

3:26pm Tuesday 20th January 2009 in Leader

NEWS that the proposed £15m Cogges Link Road may be stalled indefinitely will be welcomed many people in Witney.

According to leaked figures last month, ten-to-one opposed to scheme.

However, there are still a lot of people who back the development, pointing to it as the best possible solution to the town’s traffic problems.

There has long been an issue with rush-hour traffic in Bridge Street, and the Cogges Link Road is seen by planners as a way of uncorking this bottleneck.

While the possibility of developing a four-way junction at Shores Green has been offered as an alternative, planners do not consider this a viable option.

We must also remember the Cogges Link Road has also been backed by our local district council.

It will be interesting to see how this situation now develops, and the weight of support that is thrown behind the bid by the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Witney First.

If people truly want to see these controversial plans overturned, then it is down to them to support it.

As we have seen in Oxford, with both the Trap Grounds, in Port Meadow, and Warneford Meadow, in Headington, these applications can work.

But in these instances, they only worked because they were well supported.

This is possibly the last chance the people of Witney have to stop this development going ahead.

If people truly do not want it, then they must act, or they may end up regretting a missed opportunity when it is too late.