MUCH like the proposed Oxford to Cambridge Expressway, the M40 prompted huge controversy - it took 20 years for Oxfordshire's first motorway to become a reality.

Despite the inevitable concerns about congestion, many drivers in the county now see the road as a necessity.

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Wheatley Friends of the Earth staged a campaign to reroute the motorway away from Otmoor nature reserve, focussing on a field in the parish of Fencott and Murcott now known as Alice's Meadow.

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Their protests failed at first but then they bought some of the land from the farmer, dividing it into thousands of plots and selling it off to supporters for mere pounds in a bid to keep delaying construction, by appealing compulsory purchase orders.

The Department for Transport eventually relented and rerouted the M40.