A long-awaited bypass for Marcham village has been given the go-ahead by county councillors, with construction work on the £5m project to start in 2004.

Numerous plans have been put forward in the past 60 years to get heavy traffic out of the village's twisty and narrow main street, but all were shelved.

The county's environmental committee has now approved a scheme, to take the heavily-used A415 Abingdon to Witney road south of the village, and asked officers to put in a full planning application.

The new plan was backed by 78 per cent of the 882 residents who completed questionnaires issued by consultants working for the council earlier this year. They had delivered 1,716 questionnaires.

The council's assistant director of transport development, Eddie Luck, said he hoped the bypass would remove a lot of heavy traffic from the village.

"We want to try to develop a sensible road scheme for the village itself, but once the bypass is in place I doubt that traffic would choose to drive through Marcham."

Liberal Democrat councillor Jean Fooks welcomed the thorough consultation that had been carried out in drawing up the scheme.

However, Green councillor Craig Simmons spoke out against the proposal, saying £5m would fund many more traffic reduction schemes.

"The bottleneck that currently exists will simply move further down the A415," he added.

Former county councillor, Dr Marjorie Evans, who lives at The Farthings in Marcham, said she was delighted by the progress being made.

She added: "I have been campaigning for a relief road for the village for the past 20 years.

"It finally seems as if the bypass will become a reality."