Work to resurface the noisy section of the A34 could start within the next two years.

The Highways Agency confirmed work between Pear Tree, Oxford, and Weston-on-the-Green could start in 2005/06 subject to funding.

The work would be carried out in two phases -- the second would be expected to take place in 2008/09. But members of Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, who have been calling for action since the noisy stretch opened in 1990, are sceptical.

Parish clerk Carl Smith said: "We were promised that the road would be resurfaced last financial year 02/03, but it was not done. Obviously, we would welcome it if it happens."

Bicester MP Tony Baldry said it was a modest step forward. He said: "I have written so many letters to the Highways Agency chief executive that I almost need a separate filing cabinet. I intend to continue to badger and berate the Highways Agency until this stretch of road is dealt with properly.

"I have never understood why, given it is one of the nosiest roads in the country, it was not dealt with first."

A Highways Agency spokesman said: "When a contractor is in place they would decide what works should be done."

In a separate move, a bid by Gosford and Water Eaton parish council to the European Parliament to investigate whether villagers living near the A34 have had their human rights breached by the Government's failure to resurface the route has been accepted.

Mr Smith said the Parliament's committee of petitions would now investigate if the complaint was justified.