where the fight against the Cogges Link Road continues unabated!

News

  • Public Inquiry Announced
    April 22, 2010

    Following 12 months of painstaking discussions with Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), a decision has been made to hold a PUBLIC INQUIRY commencing June 21st 2010. This PUBLIC INQUIRY is expected to last 3-5 days, and will be held in Witney.

  • Council 'embarrassed' by itself
    September 15, 2009
    The Town Green application was deferred at today's Committee meeting.  Councillor Steve Hayward who chaired the committee said that he was 'embarrassed'.  It was the second item on the agenda that had to be deferred at the last minute today due to the actions of County Council officers.  He apologised for wasting everyone's time.
    They decided to defer the application as the County Council Highways department submitted
  • Updated Fact File
    February 10, 2009

    Witney First and CPRE today released an updated fact file. Our oppositon to the Cogges Link Road is not about sentimental attachment to a park or to further an anti-car agenda, it is about putting Witney First and listening to the facts.

    Please download the PDFs and read the facts for yourself:

  • Oxford Mail - Cogges Link Road: Fresh plan to delay work
    January 21, 2009

    The proposed £15m Cogges Link Road could be delayed indefinitely by an application to stop the development, it was claimed last night. The Campaign to Protect Rural England and Witney First protest group confirmed it would be submitting a Town Green application in the next week in an attempt to bar development along part of its route.

  • Witney Gazette - Town Green bid may be the last chance for many
    January 21, 2009

    News that the proposed £15m Cogges Link Road may be stalled indefinitely will be welcomed many people in Witney. According to leaked figures last month, ten-to-one opposed to scheme.

    Read the full article http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/opinion/leader/4061636.Town_Green_bid_may_be_the_last_chance_for_many/

  • WODC LOWLANDS PLANNING MEETING
    December 5, 2008

    Witney First sat in on the Lowlands Planning Committee meeting at WODC and while 3 councilors actually voiced concerns, a unanimous 12 voted in favour for the Cogges Link Road. They had even been given a very misleading statement on the Environmental Agency's thoughts from Phil Shaw, Head of Planning at WODC, even though the EA have not even reached a decision, let alone spoken in public. The EA obviously are now investigating this.

  • WITNEY TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
    December 3, 2008

    Witney First went to speak to the councilors direct at the Town Council meeting. We questioned what exact parts of our leaflet were inaccurate or misleading. A number of them shook their heads and scowled at us as we read out our piece. We also asked them how deliberately promoting the Cogges Link Road, when as a statutory body they should show no bias, was in the interests of their constituents.

  • WITNEY FIRST MEETS DAVID CAMERON
    November 27, 2008

    We met with David Cameron and voiced our concerns over the planning application for the CLR. Mr Cameron told us that in his conversations with WODC he had been assured that all the options would be considered in detail. We have asked Mr Cameron to speak to WODC again and confirm that this is the case, and that all options would be considered when the final decision is made on the planning application.

  • WITNEY TOWN COUNCIL DECIDE TO START PUSHING COGGES LINK- WHY?
    October 27, 2008

    Witney Town Council have printed, at the expense of the tax-payer, a leaflet supporting the CLR. Quite why WTC feel that they should get involved in such an inappropriate manner is questionable. In their information they suggested that CPRE and Witney First were giving out inaccurate information. When challenged publicly via a Press Release about this (since all our information comes directly from OCCs planning application for the CLR!), none of the 17 members have responded, even after two weeks - doesn’t that make you feel good about local democracy?

  • Flooding!

    Within the Planning Application, OCC have given information on how they would deal with the risk of flooding with the CLR. The information is very sketchy, and their flood modeling indicates that the flood plain would not be at risk to flooding where the CLR is to be built! We think this is just a little wrong, and we have supplied the EA with more evidence on this. Please visit the Flooding section of the website to download our presentation on this.