VAST improvements to the A34, the M40, railways and green transport must be made across Oxfordshire, the county council has said.

Conservative councillor Simon Clarke said the council is ‘proud’ to have supported the East West Rail project, which could take freight off the A34.

But he said more work needed to be done to ‘avoid gridlock that frequently happens’ on the road.

Councillors agreed – but Labour and Lib Dem councillors tagged on amendments to support extra rail and public transport enhancements.

Labour’s Emma Turnbull said the council should promote green transport – such as improved cycling routes – while seeking to ‘reduce congestion and pollution’ on the A34.

Bob Johnston, a Lib Dem councillor, said the possibility of reopening of a railway station for Wantage and Grove should be explored. A feasibility study over reopening the closed Didcot to Winchester railway line should be undertaken too, he said.

Reopening that ‘would provide the capacity to take much intermodal traffic going from Southampton to the Midlands off the A34 altogether,’ he said.

All councillors supported those calls, which were added to Dr Clarke’s initial motion.

He said the plan was totally separate to any future proposals involving the potential Oxford-Cambridge expressway, which could use the A34.

A proposal to build a new junction on the M40 near Banbury to help traffic in the town was also backed.

Tabled by Banbury Calthorpe councillor Eddie Reeves, he said a new Junction 10A would ‘alleviate the flow of traffic from and to the M40 to the south of Banbury town centre’.

That could, he said, ‘assist the creation of further sustainable growth across the broader “Banburyshire” area, if delivered’.

All of the measures would be subject to Government agreement and would take months – if not years in some instances – to come to fruition.

East West Rail has already seen Oxford linked to Bicester Village. The Chiltern Railways service from Oxford Parkway to London Marylebone started in October 2015. Oxford station to Marylebone then begun in December 2016.

A link to Milton Keynes from Oxford should be completed by 2023.