Watlington Relief Road Timeline
Last updated October 2026
October 2026
Oxfordshire County Council is holding a series of public information events in November where the public can see designs, maps and plans for its proposed road capacity scheme. The county council’s project team will answer questions and discuss any concerns. The event meets the statutory requirement for Community Involvement before a planning application is submitted. The council’s timetable to submit additional information to the county’s planning authority is early next year. Details are on the council’s Watlington Relief Road project page.
September 2026
A third planning agent has been preparing an updated planning application with new traffic modelling and new flood design and land assembly for a revised red line site to resubmit in 2027. Expenditure on the project could exceed £5m during 2026 with at least a further £1m expenditure for pre-commencement costs if planning consent was granted next year. £2.893m expenditure was approved by Cabinet Key Decision in September 2021 to complete Stage 2 Design & Procurement (the point at which construction can start). The failure to provide council with an Options Appraisal was considered by the Performance and Corporate Services Committee, 18th September, which voted unanimously to refer the Watlington project to the council’s Audit & Governance Committee: “It was AGREED that the matter be referred to the Audit and Governance Committee, with a request that it consider reviewing the relief road project as a priority and examining whether similar governance, due-process or option-appraisal issues existed in other major capital projects.”
February 2026
County councillors approved the council’s budget for 2026/27 with £3m added to £11.1m council reserves to cover complexity and challenges to build the road scheme, and increased risk and contingency. The Have you Say consultation on the draft 2026/27 budget was cancelled. ORAA addressed the council’s Full Council Budget meeting on the WRR. The County Council Performance and Corporate Services Committee scrutinises the budget. It made a formal recommendation that councillors were provided with the full options appraisal that justified the project was value for money and there were no other cheaper, greener alternatives, but Cabinet declined to provide this. The leader confirmed the road would be built with no further funds required. Minority opposition Green group budget amendment to remove £14.1m WRR fund, reallocated to climate positive investments, failed and was withdrawn.
August 2025
A further amended scheme was submitted to the county planning authority, with a revised description of development and updated environmental impacts. The CPA held a formal Environmental Impact Assessment public consultation on the revised planning application, which commenced on 10th July and closed 9th August. The consultation had many points of objection from statutory consultees and local parishes.
February 2025
The County Planning Authority has closed its Nov/Dec 2024 EIA public consultation on the County’s proposed Watlington Relief Road and has written to Oxfordshire County Council (Regulation 25 letter, 6th February 2025) with details of objections and missing information. This requires new studies, some of which are time-sensitive. The scope of the County’s proposed development has changed and no longer includes a 750m greenway between Watlington and Pyrton. A new description of the scheme the county is applying for has been uploaded to the planning portal. The controversial planning application is not expected to be considered until after a new County Council administration has been elected in May.
The county council approved its budget for 2025/26 with £11.1m from the market town active travel budget line added to the WRR project budget. The scheme had strong criticism from Oxfordshire residents in the council’s Have You Say 2025/26 budget consultation.
December 2024
The County Cabinet has published indicative funding for high-priority schemes in its proposed capital budget for 2025/26. £11.1m extra funding is proposed for the WRR from a £13.620m fund to support market town active travel. The council own use road would connect a series of existing and proposed developments around the northern and western sides of Watlington. The proposed allocation of 80% of a fund labelled active travel to a road capacity scheme was heavily criticised during budget scrutiny, and by councillors and campaign groups. Members inquired about the rationale for the specific breakdown of the capital programme, particularly the allocation for active travel and market town improvements. They raised concerns about whether this allocation aligned with the Council’s goal of reducing car journeys by 2050, especially given the substantial budget for the Watlington Relief Road but the Cabinet Member for Transport Management said the allocation to Watlington was appropriate
November 2024
The County Planning Authority is holding a formal round of public consultation from 21st November to 21st December under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations on further information submitted by the council on its planning application. It has referred to this as its first EIA consultation. A new agent has been appointed. The red line site boundary has changed, along with the proposed development for which the County is seeking planning approval. The land for which planning permission is sought for infrastructure relies on a revised safeguarding plan in the emerging South & Vale Joint Local Plan 2041(which has yet to be examined). The JLP deallocates Chalgrove Airfield, the main source of increased traffic on this part of the highway network.
September 2024
The Watlington Relief Road project has been put on hold by Oxfordshire County Council. The council’s Cabinet was asked to note a capital programme update that it was not possible to deliver the scheme in the timeframe to use central government growth deal funding, which expires in March 2025. The Cabinet member for Transport Management said the project remained a “priority” and new sources of funding will be identified through the budget setting process.
June 2024
Oxfordshire County Council Planning Authority confirmed in June that it has closed its public consultation on the county’s planning application under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations. The formal consultation ran for six weeks from 1st February to 2nd March. The CPA received many objections, including from statutory consultees. The planning application was missing a lot of information, without which the effects of the scheme on the environment could not be considered. The planning authority issued a Regulation 25 letter to the applicant, 5th June, which is a formal request to submit further information, some of which requires additional work. A second period of consultation would be held before the application was considered.
December 2023
A planning application from Oxfordshire County Council as local highway authority to build a Watlington Relief Road was submitted in December 2023 to the County Council’s planning authority. The planning authority will hold a statutory 30-day public consultation. It takes into consideration all responses and whether the proposed development supports current planning and transport policies and should be approved, or if there are material considerations why it should be refused. A report is prepared by a planning officer with a recommendation and reasons why.
Planning applications of this magnitude, and of this type – a road capacity scheme – are decided by Oxfordshire County Council’s Planning & Regulation Committee. The application is a departure from the Development Plan meaning it conflicts with some policies, which is a further reason for a decision to be made by the P&RC, after hearing from interested parties and considering the planning officer’s report.
Spring 2023
The Council held an online public consultation on a proposed Watlington Relief Road from 20th February for the minimum statutory 28 days and two drop in events. The consultation was community engagement for the public to “contribute to how the scheme can work best for all those who will travel along the relief road.”
In March, it launched a consultation on: Request for Scoping Opinion for the proposed new Watlington Relief Road and new associated junctions. This relates to the environmental impacts of the scheme, which it is accepted are too great to be dealt with through the normal planning process. An Environmental Impact Assessment has to be prepared, to the scope agreed with the planning authority in its Scoping Opinion. An Environmental Statement prepared under The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 must accompany a planning application.
The Council gave a timeline of a planning application in Summer 2023 with construction commencing in Autumn 2024 subject to planning approval and completion in Autumn 2025.
Spring 2021
In March 2021, Oxfordshire County Council consulted with key stakeholders on an Options Appraisal Report (OAR) on a Watlington Relief Road. The report considered if there was a need to build a road. A list of ten stakeholders were consulted, including two developers and one local resident.
Consultees were given the report, an A4 sheet and two weeks to respond. 77 queries were raised. 22 were left unanswered.
At its Cabinet meeting in September 2021, the Council agreed to progress to Stage 2. The most expensive and environmentally damaging proposed bypass route was approved. This was contrary to its own Stage 1 OAR, recommending two routes were progressed. Cabinet agreed to ”public engagement on preferred options” and if funding risks emerged these would be reported back to Cabinet.
November 2018
A relief road for Watlington was awarded £7.1m funding (increased from an initial £1.2m) from the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal in November 2018.
ORAA comment – has Oxfordshire County Council met requirements for public consultation?
Department for Transport guidance says local authority new road schemes should conduct “public consultation on potential options” and “public consultation feedback” at an early stage, as part of Stage 1. Public consultation once a preferred option has been chosen, as was the case with a WRR, is too late. There is no opportunity for stakeholders, including the public, to shape the options. The county council compounded this when it ran a statutory 28 day community engagement consultation during Stage 2 by asking the public to “contribute to how the scheme can work best for all those who will travel along the relief road.” The promised “public engagement on preferred options” at Stage 2 did not happen either.
A planning application to build a new road is Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) development that requires an Environmental Statement to accompany the application. The EIA process puts great importance on information for public participation at the early stage. Not only was community engagement held in Spring 2023 to confirm support for a road and how people would use it, the planning application submitted in December 2023 was missing information on environmental impacts. Both Stage 1 and 2 failed to demonstrate an options appraisal to support that building a road was the only viable option.
