Cogges Link Road

What's The Big Idea?

Most people would like to be more active – so why do so many of us jump in the car when we need to get somewhere? This was the question asked in What’s The Big Idea?, a thought-provoking presentation about the way we travel in town. 

Kevin Hickman of  Witney Bike User Group  (Witney BUG for short) told us that 40% of car journeys in Witney are 5km or shorter, while nearly 25% are less than 2km. Why are nearly a quarter of people getting in their cars to travel distances of less than a mile?

We did it!

It’s been reported extensively elsewhere, but I’ll add my own voice to the joyful chorus: the Cogges Link Road is dead!

The long-anticipated report arising from the public inquiry found that the scheme did not meet the test of “overwhelming public interest” that would have justified compulsory purchase of the land from the Mawle Trust.

In which I fisk a whole news story

I wrote recently about the poor reporting of the Cogges Link Road inquiry. Now Oxfordshire County Council have begun work on the road without waiting for the outcome of the inquiry, and the Oxford Mail ran a story on it today after local anti-road campaigners Witney First protested on site yesterday.

The unmet demand for quality reporting

Last autumn I spent an unexpected amount of time in Witney Methodist Church. No, I hadn’t suddenly become religious; I was reporting a public inquiry into a local planning issue and the Methodist Church was where it took place.

Also appearing at...

If you enjoy reading my blog, you might be interested to know that I can be found in other corners of the internet too.

I write regularly for the Sustainable Witney blog, most recently about the Cogges Link Road inquiry.