SOUTH Oxfordshire residents gathered to oppose a major road scheme in Didcot.

The protest was held in front of County Hall in Oxford ahead of a full county council meeting, as about 30 residents and members of environmental groups got together to oppose the scheme. 

In June, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet gave the go-ahead for the next phase of the HIF1 Didcot and surrounding areas major infrastructure project with a revised deal with the government.

HIF1 is the combination of four projects to ensure there is capacity to connect a wave of new houses set to be built to the south of Oxford.

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This includes the building of a dual carriageway on the A4130 east of Milton Interchange, a new road bridge over the A4130, railway line and Milton Road, a river crossing linking Didcot to Culham and a bypass for Clifton Hampden.

Protesters sang amended Christmas carols including the lyrics “on the first day of HIFmas, my council promised to me a future supposed to be car free.”

They held signs reading ‘no new roads’ and ‘HIF1 = waste of money’.

Chris Church, of Oxford Friends of the Earth, said: “A massive new road bridge over the Thames is no solution to rush hour congestion in Didcot.

“People from South Oxfordshire have come here today to oppose plans for this massive new road across the area – it is a financial disaster in the making.

“It is astonishing that despite serious financial problems, the county council want to push ahead on the road scheme that massively undermines their own transport and climate policies.

“Experience shows time and again the results of new roads are more pollution, more congestion and less green countryside.

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“We fully support the county council’s climate strategy – that is why we are protesting their own short-sighted road scheme.”

Graham Smith, who held a sign reading ‘roads don’t work’ said: “I’m here today because I used to work in road design and I know that the engineers’ ideas for this road scheme can only generate traffic – this is not a design for new housing, it’s a segregated new road that will make traffic worse. They have the wrong model in their heads.”

Victoria Shepherd addressed councillors during the meeting, saying: “Given the scale and rising interest rates and inflation costs, not to mention continued opposition from the Environment Agency and the five most affected parish councils, do you not think it would be logical to withdraw the current HIF1 plans – contentious and outdated as they are – to allow time to amend and rescope the scheme?”

Councillor Duncan Enright, the council's cabinet member for travel and development strategy, said: “The revised HIF2 scheme proposal and refreshed compulsory purchase order will be brought forward in early 2023 – while the challenges, especially inflation, are similar across all our infrastructure programmes, we are confident that the final scheme will be affordable and with an increased focus on our priorities, including public transport and cycling and walking.”  

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This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers. 

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @AnnaColivicchi