The Expressway Action Group now has has in excess of 35 parishes involved including the Baldons Parish Council  The steering group lead by Peter Rutt has  Elizabeth Gillespie  Dawn McGiveron and John Clark as members  and the group is a stakeholder  representing the various villages and providing information to support the evaluation of the route option  The group are not opposing the road in principle but by providing information on biodiversity and ecology and the views of local communities aim to help  Highways England  make the best possible evaluation of the scheme taking account of ,practicalities problems a and costs , we still hope to provide enough information to ensure that the recommended route goes north and west of Oxford.

Highways England who are doing the evaluation of  the project have released information on the possible corridors for the road  see report - click here

These were displayed at the Annual Parishes Meeting on 9^th April

Tables in  the report show:

Corridor A south via Abindgon/Didcot via Wheatley, Thame on to Aylesbury

Corridor B is a ring road around Oxford, either south and east or west and north – roughly following the east-west rail link.

Corridor C around Oxford is as above but then via Bicester and Buckingham

Each broad corridor could have implication for the Baldons  

The decision will be based on the achievement of the strategic objectives

• Taking account of feedback from stakeholder engagement
• Considering affordability and value for money
• Other relevant factors (eg is it physically possible to build in a certain location; is it too disruptive)

 
The Highways England team will pick the corridor that delivers the most benefit. There are no weighted factors, so all factors are judged equally.

 Consultation  and a public enquiry on the route has been requested by many of the bodies involved including the County Council  and whilst a public enquiry  on the principle of the road has been refused there will be a period of public  consultation after the announcement of the preferred route  and corridor. This is expected in July 2018 when consultation will be on the finer details of the preferred route

Current Action

EAG are announcing a publicity campaign on 12th April which will be followed by a poster campaign . and letters to  ministers  In The Baldons we will have posters in 3 strategic places and on village notice boards . More information  will also circulate via  the Village Voice emails  from John and Dawn

Updates of info can be found on the new EAG website  expresswayactiongroup.com and from the EAG facebook page https://www.facebook.com/expresswayactiongroup/