In 2015 the A420 Route Strategy* stated ‘significant’ 'short to medium-term improvements' were needed at the Coxwell Road- A420 junction, Park Road roundabout and Fernham Road (SHOWN ABOVE). In ten years NONE of these essential improvements has been delivered. In 2015 20,000 cars and HGVs used the A420 each day, and it needed to ‘operate with minimal congestion in order to avoid rat running on minor roads.’ Congestion, rat-running, growing queues and frequent accidents are almost daily issues for people using the A420, in Faringdon and the villages of the western Vale.
THE A420 IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ROAD IN OXFORDSHIRE. Between 2009 and 2014 there were 157 road accidents, of which 5% involved fatalities. By 2018 the accident rate climbed to 595 in five years# – and the number of deaths and injuries continues to rise.
IMPACTS OF MAJOR DEVELOPMENT ON THE ROAD NETWORK
A key objection to the proposal for a major commercial/ industrial development at Wicklesham Quarry SSSI is the additional burden on local roads (a) by the traffic it would inevitably generate, and (b) by creating a right turn across the A420 with traffic lights and a pedestrian and ‘horse crossing’ just a few yards from the Park Road roundabout. This location already generates lengthy queues in both directions along the A420, and along Park Road in Faringdon. Unbelievably, Oxfordshire County Council’s Highways Officer has LIFTED HIS OBJECTION to what looks to local people like a ridiculous and dangerous proposal. How long would it be before this becomes an accident blackspot? Preventing the A420 from becoming a development corridor is a key aim of the A420 Route Strategy. The planning application at Wicklesham Quarry seeks to do exactly that.
Get your objections in by midnight, 30 May- TOMORROW! Submit online at https://myeplanning.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Planning/Display/MW.0151/23, or email: planning@oxfordshire.gov.uk
‘TECHNICAL NOTE 5’ submitted by the applicants in January 2025 on the impacts of the proposal on the road network, paints a grim picture of traffic growth in Faringdon itself and on ALL local junctions with the A420. These impacts, it claims, will ‘mostly’ happen anyway, so a huge commercial/ industrial development on the A420 close to Park Road roundabout ‘probably’ won’t make much difference!
Is this a conclusion YOU agree with?! READ ON & DECIDE FOR YOURSELF. (REMEMBER-YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT TOMORROW- 30 MAY- TO OBJECT.)
In our view, the impacts TECHNICAL NOTE 5 describes are already affecting Faringdon at peak times, and whenever roadworks, temporary closures – or even local deliveries or waste collections - slightly disrupt traffic.
EVERY KEY JUNCTION BOTH IN FARINGDON AND WITH THE A420 IS ALREADY AT CAPACITY, FAILING, OR PREDICTED TO FAIL IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS.
However, the report contains some key shortcomings. It assumes traffic growth in all locations is even and linear. It is not. The computer modelling -
- does not allow for changes in motorists’ behaviour which ultimately create even MORE unwanted impacts, especially on Faringdon’s historic town centre and our surrounding villages.
- does not take into account the effects of accidents and road closures,
which mean drivers, including HGVs, have to find local ‘escape routes’ by turning off the A420 onto tiny roads and through villages with no pavements, where children walk to and from school on the roads. These are now frequent, dangerous events.
FARINGDON
Marlborough Street- Gloucester Street junction will ‘encounter building queues’ ‘of 18 vehicles’ on Gloucester Street by 2032.
Park Road -Coxwell Road - Marlborough Street mini roundabout would ‘not be within practical capacity’ at afternoon peak times by 2030, and ‘the delay on Marlborough St would be building up’.
PARK ROAD ROUNDABOUT
The A420 / Park Rd roundabout junction ‘is close to practical capacity in the AM peak on the Park Road approach. The junction is predicted to become over capacity in the 2025 reference case scenario 1.’
Even after ‘improvements’ the junction is still predicted to be 'slightly over capacity in the 2029 AM and PM peak' (do minimum scenario 2 flows or scenario 3).
- They admit: ‘the proposed development traffic causes the junction to become slightly over practical capacity’. And on top of this, they want to add a pedestrian and horse crossing!
An error in the assessment is that they state the A420 approaching Park Road roundabout from the NE has two lanes, thereby reducing traffic queues. This is incorrect. It is a single lane carriageway. So the modelling for Park Road roundabout is wrong. In our experience pm peak traffic queues already extend from Park Road roundabout to Stanford Road. There is no plan to create 2 lanes of traffic here, so if the model is corrected – both junctions would look considerably WORSE. Am peak time queues to Park Road from the SW already frequently extend almost to Fernham Road – but the authors fail to acknowledge this.
IF EVERYONE WALKS, IT MIGHT BE JUST ABOUT OK! (MAYBE)
The authors optimistically suggest that ‘The effect of introducing sustainable travel measures for the site should assist in reducing the traffic impact of the proposed development at this junction’. In real-speak this means- as long as people walk or cycle, things might be OK! SERIOUSLY!? And how many people are expected to use the site who actually live in Faringdon itself? Obviously, that is something they avoid discussing.
A420 – COXWELL ROAD
junction is ‘close to capacity in the AM peak and delays are building for the minor arm right turn manoeuvre’ and ‘delays for right turners occur due to the limited gaps presented in the heavy A420 traffic streams.’ The junction ‘is predicted to become over capacity in the 2027 reference case scenario 1’. Even AFTER the A420/ Coxwell Rd traffic signal junction is (eventually) added it would still be 'below practical capacity under the reference case scenario 1' (i.e workers using cars to travel to the proposed development- which, of course, they would!) And, in our view the traffic light would add to the congestion of peak time traffic on the A420, creating PM queues that would prevent cars exiting Fernham Road altogether.
A420 – FERNHAM ROAD
‘delay for traffic emerging from the minor arm.. is expected to worsen in the reference case with the addition of committed development to a point where it fails in the PM peak with no traffic able to emerge safely from the minor arm, Fernham Road’ Anyone who is forced to use the Fernham Road A420 junction knows how dangerous it already is. Many local drivers turn left to Coxwell Road and then use Gloucester Street and London Road in order to access the A420 towards Oxford. However, even this is projected to become impossible.
A420 – STANFORD ROAD
‘The junction is predicted to become over practical capacity in the 2032 reference case scenario 1 on the A420 (S) approach in the AM peak with a maximum RFC value of 0.90 and on the Stanford Rd approach in the PM peak with a maximum RFC value of 1.15.’ In our experience, this junction regularly suffers lengthy queues already.
AND THE WORST OF THE LOT? LONDON ROAD – A420
This ‘is predicted to become over practical capacity in the 2027 reference case scenario 1 on the London Rd approach in the AM peak with a maximum RFC value of 1.35.’ ‘In 2032 the junction essentially fails on London Road with an RFC value climbing to 7.11. In the PM peak, junction is also overcapacity and the delays on London Road would also be exponentially increasing.’
This indicates that the volume of traffic through the town’s narrow streets will increase substantially in both directions- a nightmare scenario for Faringdon’s residents that the A420 BYPASS was supposed to cure once and for all.
The right turn box for traffic to London Road from the A420 will become insufficient, and cars will queue along the single carriageway A420 itself on the brow of the hill- an extremely dangerous scenario.
YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT ON 30 MAY TO SUBMIT YOUR OBJECTIONS.
DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!
* Local Transport Plan 2015- 2031 (inc A420 Route Strategy) chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/documents/s33762/Annex%203%20-%20Connecting%20Oxfordshire%20vol%207-%20A40%20A420%20Corridor%20Strategies.pdf
# FOI request to Oxfordshire County Council by the Oxford Mail, 2018