Controversy over HGVs and induced traffic on major new 9 mile Didcot road continues

ORAA notes Oxfordshire County Council’s announcement that construction works are to start on the infamous HIF1 project. (1) These may be dressed up as enabling works but the Council will be acting unlawfully if it commences construction works before 23 pre-commencement conditions, including restoration plans on private land are completed and approved. (2) ORAA trusts the Council will not do so.

ORAA is also concerned that enabling works will include removal of many trees (like at Lodgehill Slips) before updated tree survey work at Clifton Hampden and Appleford is complete. Regrettably, many will soon be lost, causing further damage to our threatened countryside.

New county road to ease congestion on A34

The true nature of this scheme as an A34 relief road is now emerging with recent statements by the Council to Oxford Mail on the importance of the road’s HGV specification.(3) The Road Haulage Association has always stated HIF1 would be used to ease congestion on the A34. (4) This was considered by the Council’s Planning & Regulation Committee, when it decided to refuse the application in July 2023. OCC’s evidence at the planning inquiry was that the HIF1 road would not be used by HGVs as an alternative to the Strategic Road Network (the A34/M40). This was accepted by the inspector and SofS. Now the HGV specification is being promoted as a benefit.

The council’s visualisation does not show HGV traffic that the road is intended to attract. People are shown as having journeys they will want to walk, alongside the 9 mile HGV route. Cyclists will have 11 roundabouts to navigate. There is no cycle link between Culham and Abingdon, which is critical infrastructure missing from this expensive scheme.

ORAA recognises that the HIF1 road is proceeding but is concerned about the damage this will do to the local landscape and climate.

ORAA notes that National Highways is responsible and accountable for A34/M40 through Oxfordshire and any associated impacts. Any other new or existing roads are for Oxfordshire County Council and any traffic and its associated impacts as a result of attracting trips from the Strategic Road Network, are a matter for Oxfordshire County Council. (5)

Chris Church added: “We recognise that the road is going ahead, but there are still real questions about why it’s worth spending nearly £400 million to move traffic congestion a few miles down the road. “The County Council have admitted at the public inquiry into this road that it would provide some congestion relief for no more than ten years. With thousands of new homes coming with this we need a long-term solution. At the moment the Council is spending at least five times as much on new roads as they are on rail and buses. Cost overruns are also a very real possibility – with council finances as stretched as they are, this would mean higher council tax bills for us all.”

ends

Contact:   oraaoxfordshire@gmail.com, Chris Church co-chair Oxfordshire Roads Action Alliance 07710 409590

Notes for editors

1.https://news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/early-stage-construction-work-starts-on-major-infrastructure-scheme-for-didcot-and-surrounding-areas/, 16th October 2025

2. SofS decision on granting planning permission on the HIF1 Infrastructure scheme

3. Councillor Judy Roberts, cabinet member for place, environment and climate action, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the road would help direct HGV traffic and commuting cars away from small villages. She said: “It’s not an easy area to get around. “If you’ve got rat running cars thundering through, it makes the whole village feel go, and it becomes more of an urban landscape. “A lot of those villages have got have very small, very old bridges, that weren’t constructed for 44 tonne HGV to go over it […] and they are expensive to repair. “We are providing well-built, structurally sound bridges that should last at least 50 years, if not 100, so the heavy vehicles can go that way and leave the very pretty surrounding areas to the more local traffic.” Oxford Mail, 16th October 2025

4. Didcot – new road project could ease A34 congestion, says RHA

5. Accounting for traffic impacts on the Strategic Road Network, managed by National Highways, versus the Local Highway Network, managed by Oxfordshire County Council

6. Oxfordshire Roads Action Alliance (ORAA) is a community alliance and campaign group opposed to unsustainable road development in Oxfordshire.