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NOTES OF A PUBLIC MEETING ON THE FUTURE OF NEWBRIDGE AND THE A415

Standlake Parish Council met and Brenda Smith gave an account of the Transport Decisions Committee meeting on 6th September. The Committee is recommended to:
a) approve the single route corridor indicated on the plan BNP1080/B3901* for the development of a replacement bridge over the River Thames; and
b)authorise the Head of Transport in consultation with the Head of Property to enter into negotiations with the landowner's agent Cluttons to purchase the section of land within the sale document referred to as Lot 6.
*the site they have recommended is 200 metres west of Newbridge; the A415 will turn left just before the Maybush and return at the new traffic lights.

I quote David Bevan's mail:

Apparently, David Robertson accepted this with only one query as to why the decision was needed at this stage and was informed by the officers that the decision was needed so that the purchase of land could go ahead. They were not interested in the argument that this was putting the cart before the horse. .... they have completely disregarded any investigation into the present and future load bearing capability of Newbridge and are absolutely focused on a new crossing even to the final route it will take. The decision made at that meeting completely ignores anything we have raised and, in the view of the PC, will make any future ‘consultation’ a farce; it also pre-empts the outcome of any planning process. It will also result in the spending of over £60,000 (Charles (Mathew) puts it as high as £75,000) of OUR money on the purchase of land that may not be used if the ‘consultation’ and planning processes result in a refusal of the route.

The Liberal Democrat group were so exasperated by the sheer perverseness of this decision that they have ‘called it in’ to the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee which will hear it on Wednesday next, 19th September. Brenda and Chris Naylor will attend, Charles being a member of that committee, but do not know, as yet, if they can speak. The PC decided that given the short time scale the only practical way to make our voice felt is to email, or snail mail - but that will have to be quick, the chair of the E & E committee, Colin Lamont colin.lamont@oxfordshire.gov.uk ; and, this is a personal thought, I would recommend copying to Charles Mathew, David Robertson and David Cameron.

The line we want to take at this E & E meeting is not about the whole reasoning pro or con a new crossing, but that the decision made at the TDC meeting on 6 Sept was flawed in that it has been made without any consultation or proper considerations of the option not to build a new bridge, and that it commits to the spending of a large amount of Public Money before those processes have been followed. So, if you would fire up you emailing and contact list, give people this information and ask them to write, as soon as possible, along the lines I have just indicated in this paragraph, the PC would appreciate it. "

It is clear that OCC is going ahead and completely ignoring anything we have said. They seem to think there is no problem because it will be "no worse than before the limit" ignoring the fact that the PC and many residents have been complaining about heavy traffic for more than twenty years. As the new bridge will carry two way traffic it is very likely that the traffic will increase considerably all along the A415. This will affect all villages on or near the road. We need all the help we can get. As David says, please write or email as soon as possible.

A copy of the plan can be seen here