BICESTER will need to resolve ‘significant infrastructure issues’ if the Oxford-Cambridge (OxCam) Arc is indeed to go ahead.
The Arc, seen as the UK’s version of California’s Silicon Valley, could see improved connectivity with a new rail line between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge.
It would possibly see track laid along a disused railway line between Bicester and Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire.
READ ALSO: Oxford-Cambridge Arc plans not yet shelved by Government
Senior Government figure Michael Gove – Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – refused to be drawn into detail on the current state of the proposals, but said there will be ‘uncomfortable conservations’ in the future.
Michael Waine, Oxfordshire county councillor for the Bicester division, said infrastructure problems in the town need to be resolved, as a matter of priority.
He said: “The major issue in Bicester is the London Road crossing, which a resolution has been sought for.
“It’s all part of the Arc, a lot of the heavy traffic that goes from Oxford to Cambridge would go on the East-West rail link.
“The roads between Oxford and Cambridge are not sufficient as it is right now.
“I wouldn’t want to see it as a forced development, but a natural development of the sciences that is already there in Oxford.
“Bicester is a town that’s grown since the 1950s, but it hasn’t the necessary infrastructure and still lacks that now.
“Bicester has got significantly higher infrastructure issues that need to be resolved before anything happens.”
Responding to a question about the Arc, Mr Gove said at a meeting of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: “We are talking to all the local authorities involved but I think that some of the figures that have been bandied around about housing growth related to the OxCam Arc have been both inflated and unhelpful.
“Oxford and Cambridge are jewels in the UK’s crown. They will grow. There will be some uncomfortable conversations about how that growth manifests itself but anyone who thinks that we’re going to try to constrain that, I think that’s wrong.
“But it is also the case that the idea that you can create a sort of a ribbon development between Oxford and Cambridge, as intense as that which has been suggested, I think that is overstated.”
Nick Burton, from campaign group Stop the Arc Group, said: “So there we have it. The OxCam Arc is well and truly broken, and the Government is apparently going to do absolutely nothing to stop unconstrained growth of Oxford and Cambridge cities.”
In March, the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) announced it would be managing nature reserves in a project dubbed ‘Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor and the Ray’.
The area in question stretches more than 300km2 between Buckingham, Bicester, Aylesbury and Oxford – but is currently earmarked for development of the Arc.
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This story was written by Liam Rice, he joined the team in 2019 as a multimedia reporter.
Liam covers politics, travel and transport. He occasionally covers Oxford United.
Get in touch with him by emailing: Liam.rice@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter @OxMailLiamRice
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