Sir – Your article of January 15 quotes councillor Warwick Robinson, chairman of West Oxfordshire District Council’s (WODC) planning committee, saying that Taylor Wimpey’s application to build 200 houses between Woodstock Road and New Yatt Road, Witney, should only be considered if the developer pays towards the building of the West End Link Road (WEL).

 

First, we were surprised that the chairman of WODC’s planning committee should not only make such a comment before this application is considered, and, second, that he continues to promote a scheme that is fundamentally flawed.

 

Any development, including this ill thought through bridge, on a Zone 3b floodplain must pass either a sequential test or an exception test. The success of this test is called into doubt by Oxfordshire County Council in WODC’s 2012 Draft Local Plan ‘Assessment of Strategic Site Options’.

 

Neither is this proposed bridge “essential infrastructure”, a condition required to pass the exception test within the definition of the Technical Guidance to the National Planning Policy Framework, as it can be clearly shown that WEL increases traffic congestion within Witney. Oxfordshire Highway’s Traffic Modelling Forecasts submitted for the 2011 Cogges Link Road enquiry shows that compared to implementing the Shores Green Slip Road, (SGSR), WEL increases traffic flow in West End by 52.5 per cent; increases traffic flows through the sensitive Witney Conservation Area by 69.4 per cent and Hailey Road becomes Witney’s third busiest road. The current submitted plan for WEL shows nine double 5m piles over 190m of floodplain, crossing two arms of the river and all within 300m of the vulnerable town centre. The answer is delivery of the SGSR now, and WODC ensuring all future housing development is close to the A40, providing additional S106 funds to resolve the A40 and access to areas of employment.

 

Stuart Harrison, Chairman, North Witney Action Group