The Highways Agency has commissioned tests on the road to judge how badly people living near the A34 between Peartree interchange and Wendlebury suffer from traffic noise.

The tests are part of a 10-year project being carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory on 70 sites nationwide at a cost of £250,000. The aim is for all concrete roads, which includes the A34, to be resurfaced with quieter asphalt by 2010.

But long-suffering villagers in Gosford and Water Eaton, near Kidlington, who have been campaigning for a quieter A34 since 1990, fear they are at the back of the queue. Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council has been told by the Highways Agency that the noise tests will determine the order in which the roads are to be resurfaced.

Priority will be given to roads which have been open since 1998 where noise levels are higher than predicted, and roads where treatment will benefit the greatest number of people.

Neither of these considerations helps the case of those residents pressing for a quieter surface on the A34, including Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson, whose family home in Kidlington is within earshot of the road.

Carl Smith, clerk of Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, said: "We have been given the impression that because there are a relatively small number of people living near the road, we will be judged a low priority.

"Night-time noise from the A34 exceeds the levels recommended by the World Health Organisation and badly affects many people living near it, and still we are made to wait." The news they may have to wait even longer has dismayed residents, including 69-year-old Agnes Pollard, of Water Eaton Lane.

She said: "The noise is worse than ever at this time of year when you want the windows open, especially at night. We have got double glazing, but it doesn't do any good. I find it hard to get to sleep and you hear it terribly at the weekend if you sit out in the garden."

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: "Our resources for resurfacing are limited and we need to prioritise the greatest number of people possible."