PLANS for Witney's Cogges Link Road have been submitted, but campaigners have vowed to continue their long-running battle against the contentious £16.4m scheme.

The West Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which has been against the road since it was first mooted over 20 years ago, will object to the formal planning application, which is about to go out to public consultation.

And Oxfordshire County Council, which has submitted its planning application to West Oxfordshire District Council, expects it may have to go through a public inquiry and compulsory purchase orders, delaying the opening of the road to 2012 at the earliest.

The council announced its plans this week.

As part of the public having their say, an exhibition on the scheme is being mounted in early October at Witney's Marlborough Hotel.

The times are October 8, 3pm to 9pm, October 10, 10am to 6pm, and October 11, 10am to 1pm. Documents, however, will be available online later this month.

The link road would connect the Sainsbury's roundabout in Witan Way to the main road at Oxford Hill, at the junction with Jubilee Way, and is designed to ease town centre traffic congestion around Bridge Street.

CPRE local chairman, Gillian Salway, said: "We have been against it all the time and will continue. Yes, this is the last battleground, the last possibility of stopping it.

"But we will need support. We know that there are businesses in Station Lane worried about the effects of traffic stacking up in that end of town before the Sainsbury's roundabout.

"And we will also be canvassing residents on the Cogges estate to object individually."

The CPRE has always objected to the impact the road will have on the floodplain and environment of the River Windrush.

But it also says that the road will not solve Witney's traffic circulation problems.

It believes an alternative scheme of a four-way junction at Shores Green on the A40 would be a cheaper option.

A year ago, the Gazette received one of the biggest responses to its own online poll, with 173 voting for the Cogges link and 165 for Shores Green.

The county's scheme is considerably revised from its earliest ideas in 1984. The road is longer, single carriageway with a 40mph limit and with a three-metre wide footpath and cycleway.

Ian Hudspeth, county cabinet member for transport, said: "I am very pleased that the planning application for Cogges Link has now been submitted.

"I hope local people will come along to the exhibition to view the details of the scheme as it will benefit Witney residents and businesses by reducing congestion."

Documents on the scheme will be available online from later this month on the county's webpage for the Witney Integrated Transport Strategy, oxfordshire.gov.uk/witneytransport

Source: Witney Gazette