A415 scheme to be dropped (From Witney Gazette)

A415 scheme to be dropped

9:00am Wednesday 11th October 2006 in Witney By Reg Little

A £50m scheme to improve the A415 Abingdon-to-Witney route is set to be dropped by Oxfordshire County Council.

The scheme had been seen as an important means of diverting traffic from the heavily congested A34 and A40.

The A415 scheme would have been made up of a series of costly improvements, including the Marcham bypass, Kingston Bagpuize Link Road, the replacement of the historic Newbridge and the Standlake/ Brighthampton bypass.

But it now looks like the scheme is an early victim of the regional assembly's South East Plan, which says road schemes supporting new housing growth should be given highest priority.

A report from the county council's head of transport, Steve Howell, says the new criteria means there is little point in even submitting a bid in the current round or even beyond 2011. He is recommending that councillors should remove the A415 improvements from the county's long-term transport improvement programme.

He said the decision meant alternative ways needed to be found to manage congestion on the A34.

But the county council is still left with the problem of diverting traffic away from Newbridge, the 12th-Century bridge, which is being made unusable by the volume of heavy lorries.

An 18-tonne weight limit was introduced with County Hall engineers increasingly alarmed at the speed of the bridge's deterioration.

Mr Howell said that the only long-term solution is to build a replacement structure.

But it is likely that any new bridge would be close to the existing bridge, now the rerouting of the A415 is being abandoned.

Standlake Parish Council earlier wrote to David Robertson, the cabinet transport portfolio holder, about the environmental impact of a new crossing.

Parish clerk, David Bevan, said: "There are many places where the A415 is unsuitable for HGV traffic, primarily due to the width of the carriageway, which creates a dangerous environment for pedestrians and cyclists.

"We have always maintained that the solution is to impose a permanent 7.5-tonne weight limit at Newbridge, and route HGV traffic along existing trunk roads.

"This would have the effect of preserving the historic monument and its setting, maintaining the A415 as a strategic commuter route, and saving millions of pounds of public money."

He feared that with no Standlake and Marcham bypasses, traffic on Newbridge would still increase, with traffic levels affecting quality of life in villages.

County Hall has made it clear that it will be unable to fund the £14m needed to go ahead with the Marcham Bypass.

But the council indicates that it is hoping 'funding opportunities' for local infrastructure could arise if Thames Water's plans for a massive reservoir at nearby Steventon goes ahead.

County council leaders agreed to impose a 50mph limit on the whole of the A415, following a series of accidents, some of them fatal.

Last October, Carlos Rodrigues, 31, of West End, Witney, was fined £1,200 and disqualified from driving for two years after pleading not guilty at Oxford Crown Court to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving on the A415 near Ducklington, on September 7, 2004.

He overtook a pick-up truck, a lorry, and a minibus, before losing control on a right-hand bend, and spinning into an oncoming VW Polo.

The car ended up in Cokethorpe School playing field on its roof, and the driver's five-year-old daughter and his 22-year-old brother-in-law both died.

A motorcyclist was also killed in an accident near the Ducklington junction in December 2003, while in October of the same year, a woman motorcyclist died in a collision with a car near Standlake.