Oxfordshire County Council produced the Local Transport Plan 4 in 2015 and as the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan (which it is part of) is supposed to justify the requirement for 93,560 to 106,560 new homes by 2031 and to provide, among other things:

• £500 million investment in rail improvements and
• c£815 million of transport infrastructure improvements,

at least 5% of the investment should be made in Wantage and Grove so this should have been a key document.

Unfortunately little if any of the plan is relevant to our area and our comments were ignored.

Wantage and Grove are providing over 5% of the new homes required for Oxfordshire (based on the figures in the Strategic Economic Plan) and the only improvements we are promised is a partial ring road and a few minor road improvements (traffic lights etc.).

• How is this sustainable?
• How will this make Wantage a “quality Market Town”?
• When will our ring road be completed with the Western Relief Road?
• When will money be made available to invest in the “quality” infrastructure necessary to make Wantage a “quality Market Town”

The Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan is supposed to justify the requirement for 93,560 to 106,560 new homes by 2031 and to provide, among other things:

• £500 million investment in rail improvements and
• c£815 million of transport infrastructure improvements

If we are providing at least 5% of the housing required across Oxfordshire, why don’t we see at least 5% of the investment being made in Wantage and Grove?

• 5% of the £815m investment in transport infrastructure will be about £42m – that would fund our western ring road and the improvements to the A417
• 5% of the £500 million investment in rail improvements would fund the reopening of Grove Station

How long do we have to put up with the lack of funding in Wantage and Grove?

 

Roads