CAMPAIGNERS were left fuming today after Oxfordshire county councillors threw out a motion calling for noise levels on the county’s roads to be measured.

Liberal Democrat councillor Dermot Roaf tabled a motion to the full council, inviting members to “consider taking steps to measure the noise from major roads, so the information could be held and drawn upon when opportunities arose for taking action”.

Campaigners in Wheatley hoped the move could pave the way for improvements on the A40 near the village.

Some claimed noise from the carriageway was making their lives a misery.

Wheatley Parish Council vice-chairman Gwendolen Birks, who spoke in support of the motion, said: “The motion failed — I think they were afraid of what the measurements might show.

“It’s a setback, but we won’t stop.

“Our campaign will carry on.

“Our particular anger is the noise levels on the A40 between Sandhills and Wheatley, only a three-mile stretch.

“It affects the vast majority of people living in Wheatley, Holton and Forest Hill.

“We want a whole section of the road resurfaced because it makes people’s lives a misery.”

Ian Hudspeth, the county council’s cabinet member for transport, was unavailable for comment.