TRANSPORT planners have demanded the three-year construction of the £120m Oxford flood relief channel be re-ordered to avoid clashing with other major road projects and "severely impacting" congestion in Oxford.

Preparatory works on the four-mile channel from Seacourt Park and Ride to Sandford Lock could begin this year as part of the extension at Seacourt Park and Ride starting next month.

But Oxfordshire County Council urged the Environment Agency reschedule its construction as phase one and two would clash with the £9.1m Botley Road Corridor project – set to start in October 2019.

Senior transport planners also warned phases three and four, requiring the closure of Old Abingdon Road and part of Kennington Road, would coincide with a major scheme at Hinksey Hill Interchange – scheduled from April 2020 to March 2021.

This clash, they said, would "severely impact" the city's road network and make it difficult for Kennington residents to travel into Oxford.

A planning application for the flood scheme submitted this year revealed that construction vehicles would be using the South Hinksey junction off the A34 to get to the construction site.

Highways England has now raised concerns over the "intensification" of traffic on the A34 and called for measures to ensure the road could operate "safely and efficiently".

Oxford Mail: Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme route map. Picture: Environment Agency

The Government agency has asked to meet with Environment Agency senior officials and demanded more information before a decision was made.

Assistant transport planner at the county council, Will Madgwick, responding the plans, said: "The biggest concern at this stage is with the timing of this scheme.

"While understanding the EA have their own timeframes in which different phases of the project need to be completed, to reduce congestion across the network re-ordering of phases may be necessary to reduce clashes with other major projects being undertaken in the city."

Mr Madgwick also urged the EA to "fast track or speed up" parts of the scheme which require Old Abingdon Road and part of Kennington Road to be closed for 15 months.

He also feared that some of the 22 temporary access points may not be acceptable and could force large construction vehicles to use narrow residential streets.

The Environment Agency said the construction would be "challenging" and said it was important to minimise disruption to communities.

It also said it would carefully consider all the responses before submitting a full business case to the Government later this year, with the main construction set to start in 2019.

Oxford Bus Company also said the road closures would increase congestion and warned its City35 route from Oxford to Abingdon via Kennington would have to be amended.

The scheme is designed to reduce the risk of flooding to 1,200 homes and businesses across the city and was drawn up following severe flooding in recent years.

Landowners and conservation groups have also raised issues over the impact on a number of meadows and habitats in the area.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust said it appreciated the mitigation and compensatory habitats provided as part of the scheme.

But Ferry Hinksey Charitable Trust, which owns a field that will be affected by the construction, objected to the entire principle of the channel and said it would 'decimate' the local countryside.

Trustee Chris Sugden said: "We are still completely mystified as to why the EA is moving forward with such an over engineered and expensive scheme which will ruin acres of Oxford's surrounding pastures when the simple measure would be to dredge and clear the debris out of the rivers and streams.

"This would save the taxpayer millions."

He added: "We have taken advice from hydrologists and they all agree the scheme could be delivered further upstream to avoid Oxford's precious meadows.

"The scheme is going to take years to build and decimate the local countryside."

Another landowner, Oxford Preservation Trust, also strongly objected to a number of details, saying the application had not fully demonstrated the 'very special circumstances' needed to justify developing in the Green Belt.

It added that the public benefits of the scheme were "less than claimed" and there were also problems of reduced public access to land along the channel route.

The Oxford Green Belt Network shared these views and said the channel represented a "poor investment of public money in a project which could certainly cause severe environmental disruption".

Environment Agency Funding and benefits realisation manager, Emma Formoy, said: "The planning process for our Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme application is ongoing.

"We are carefully considering all the responses to the planning application.

"The construction of the scheme will be challenging and coordination will be important to delivering this vital piece of infrastructure while minimising disruption to communities."