Cabinet Member: Travel & Development Strategy

Forward Plan Ref: 2021/164

Contact: Joy White, Principal Transport Planner Tel: 07554 103522

Report by Corporate Director Environment & Place (CA11).

To seek delegated authority for officers to respond in the council’s statutory consultee role, to consultations on this proposed development, which, as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, falls outside the council’s current Scheme of Delegation.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve Oxfordshire County Council’s response to a non-statutory public consultation on the proposals for the Oxfordshire Strategic Rail Freight Interchange.

Recommendations agreed

Oxfordshire Railfreight Ltd. has proposed a rail freight interchange close to the site of the former Ardley railway station.  Given the scale and significance of the development, officers considered that Cabinet should have the opportunity to approve the Council’s response to the first public consultation by the promoter.

Councillor Duncan Enright, Cabinet Member for Travel & Development Strategy, introduced the report.  The proposal was part of the national infrastructure programme.  The LTCP committed the Council to supporting rail freight.  This consultation response conveys our concerns about the implications in this proposal for the local road network, the employment market, onward transport of goods and access for employees.

Cabinet Members raised other concerns including the following:

·       The Bicester area already had a large number of warehouses.

·       There were concerns about the scale of the site and knock-on implications for the road network.

·       This proposal was located in an important area for nature.

·       Thousands of staff will likely have to travel long distances and access the site 24 hours a day, yet there was no proposal to have a passenger station on this site.

·       We should not be converting much needed farmland to warehouse space.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Enright, seconded by Councillor Sudbury and agreed.

RESOLVED to approve Oxfordshire County Council’s response to a non-statutory public consultation on the proposals for the Oxfordshire Strategic Rail Freight Interchange.