South-east ‘needs more roads or building target won’t be met’

Housing cannot be built in parts of the South-east until the government improves the road network, planners have warned.

The spatial strategy published by the area’s regional assembly on 31 July estimates that a minimum of 28,000 homes must be built each year for at least the next five years.

But fears are growing that the target will be impossible to meet without major investment in transport infrastructure.

All urban area developments in south Oxfordshire have been put on hold after the Highways Agency, the body that oversees England’s road network, raised concerns that they would add to already high levels of traffic congestion.

A plan to build 3200 homes – 40-50% of which would be social housing – in Didcot, south-east Oxfordshire, has been stalled for more than 18 months.

According to the Highways Agency, the A34, which would be the scheme’s main access route, cannot accommodate extra traffic. It is already one of the busiest roads in the region.

In November 2002, the agency said the project should not go ahead until a plan was devised for improving access to the site.

Developers George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow said this would either require the A34 to be widened or an entirely new road to be built, both of which would require cooperation from the Department for Transport.

Frankie Upton, principal planning officer at Oxfordshire council, said: “The government needs to sort out the A34, otherwise we can’t build new homes. Our hands are tied.”

Keith Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire council and chairman of the South-east England Regional Assembly’s planning committee, said the government must finance research to find a solution. He said: “Congestion must be addressed, particularly on the A34.”

He blamed the delay on a lack of communication between the ODPM and the Department for Transport.