Roadworks causing chaos on the A34, commuters caught in traffic tailbacks, residents furious because motorists are using their villages as rat-runs.

It sounds like any day this month since the much-aligned roadworks on the A34 started - but it's a snippet of one man's memories from 1988.

Pensioner Warren Barnes, of Godstow Road, Wolvercote, has dug out a cutting from the Oxford Mail exactly ten years ago showing today's traffic troubles are nothing new.

The story is headlined "Moves to end traffic chaos at roundabout" and appeared in the Mail on November 11, 1988.

It starts: "New moves are under way to speed up roadworks north of Oxford and to ease the increasing motoring pressure on several Oxfordshire 'rat run' villages."

The story goes on to say: "Drivers anxious to avoid frustratingly long delays at the Pear Tree roundabout have been pouring down country roads to escape the queues."

And the areas affected? That's right - Wytham, Wolvercote, Eynsham, Bladon and Godstow. Sound familiar? At that time tailbacks stretched more than two miles as work took place to build the new A34 link from Pear Tree roundabout to the M40 extension at Wendlebury.

Now the northbound carriageway of the ring road is closed between the Botley interchange and Pear Tree roundabout in Oxford - and exactly the same thing is happening.

Some motorists have found their journeys taking as much as five times longer than usual, and businesses in Oxford have claimed the work is ruining trade.

Mr Barnes said: "Traffic from the south is now being diverted through Wolvercote or round the other way on the Eastern bypass. "Compared to a normal time I would say there are now 20 times as many cars coming through.

"Its interesting to see exactly the same thing happened ten years ago. What is going to happen in 2008? Do we ever learn?"

Mr Barnes remembers the roadworks of ten years ago causing havoc in the village.

But he said the problems were far worse now because of the volume of traffic.

Police have been booking motorists and issuing £20 tickets for using the access road to Wytham to avoid the A34 roadworks.

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