SIR, Long Wittenham residents will no doubt share the concerns regarding volumes of traffic generated by the new Didcot North development as expressed by parish council chairman, Tom Bowtell, last month. (Only 50 cars to the north-east from a development of 1,800 houses? We wish!).
These concerns were prominent in the past rounds of strategic planning when the choice of growth for Didcot (west or north east) was debated exhaustively by the county council in the late 1990s. At that time, the Highways Agency expressed their own reservations over development at Didcot West due to the extra volumes of local traffic which would be generated on the A34.
How strange that it now seems the wheel has come full circle and in the absence of any complete traffic planning/mitigation proposals (where are the bus route provisions to the north east to reduce vehicle traffic, for example?), it is now a complete and acceptable planning strategy for developers to claim as some sort of traffic mitigation the fact that Culham and Clifton Hampden bridges will be at gridlock capacity.
Thus traffic will now be encouraged, presumably, towards the A34 — or are we to anticipate a major flyover covering the Didcot area?
Jane May, Briarwood, Long Wittenham
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