Plans for a one-way traffic system through an underpass at Didcot are to go ahead, despite protests.

Cyclists and pedestrians had strongly objected to the proposed one-way system southbound under Cow Lane Bridge, the main route to the town centre for people living on the new Ladygrove housing estates to the north.

But Oxfordshire County council says it is necessary as part of the next-phase of the Didcot-Milton Heights link road, with access to shops in the planned Orchard Centre development.

Council officers claim that keeping two-way traffic through the underpass when the new road was built would cause congestion and delay because of extra traffic from the new town centre.

Didcot county councillor Terry Joslin (Lab) said: "I fully sympathised with the cyclists and pedestrians, but any hold-up in the road scheme could jeopardise the town centre scheme."

Members of the county council's highways and safety sub-committe approved the scheme, but also agreed a separate cycle-footway tunnel should be built under the main London railway line.