ANOTHER £2m will be ploughed into a delayed road project which has wreaked havoc for residents.

The third and last stage of Access to Headington was meant to have finished in March – but the county council has said it should be completed in September.

The project’s cost will increase from £14.5m to £16.6m.

A city councillor slammed the plan, claiming no one in his ward supported the project to get people out of their cars and onto alternative modes of transport.

When the current phase was being planned in mid-2017, the council had hoped work would cost £12.5m – but that has spiralled.

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Mick Haines, independent city councillor for Marston, said: “I haven’t spoken to one person who has said it’s a good idea and I have spoken to 1,070 of them getting signatures for a multi-storey car park [at the John Radcliffe Hospital].”

He added: “It’s a waste of money; it’s scandalous, terrible.

“People keep asking me when it’s going to finish and the only thing I have got (from the county council) is September.

“They are doing a bit and then leaving it.”

The authority had hoped the third phase would have started in January 2018, then April 2018.

It eventually got underway in May of that year.

Mr Haines, a persistent critic of the project, said it has backfired badly with critical roads in Headington and Marston more congested than they were before it started.

The scheme will eventually provide six kilometres of ‘sustainable transport improvements’ with the hope more people will walk, cycle or take the bus rather than drive.

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet approved increasing its budget to £16.6m at a meeting on Tuesday.

It has been delayed for a number of reasons, including bad weather and the need to secure more money. Money to bring the budget to £14.5m eventually came from the Oxfordshire Growth Board last year.

In council papers, it is shown resurfacing has cost £60,000 more than first expected. Other work to ‘improve scope’ has also increased by £550,000 more than previously thought.

Work in Gipsy Lane and Old Road to boost pedestrians’ and cyclists’ accessibility has been completed.

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Other work in The Slade, Churchill Drive and Old Road to build a segregated cycleway and upgrade a signal junction has also been done.

Residents were unhappy when trees in Cherwell Drive and Marsh Road were cut down to make way for new cycle lanes.

But the council said 24 trees felled will be replaced later.

Patients using hospitals around Headington were urged to leave at least two hours to allow them to park because of expected delays.

The authority said preparatory work should have reduced possible waiting times.