OUR stories today about London Welsh rugby club’s proposal to move into Witney’s disused Community Stadium and the application to build 700 new homes east of Carterton raise wider questions for the development of West Oxfordshire.

Key among them – yet again – is the issue of the district’s transport connections.

Were London Welsh to move to Witney and achieve their ambition of a return to rugby union’s Premiership, it raises the possibility of thousands of supporters descending on the town at weekends.

While some businesses would welcome such an influx of potential customers, we fear it will mean the weekday jams on the A40 could become weekend jams too, given the lack of realistic alternative ways of getting to and from Witney than by road.

In the case of the proposed Carterton East housing development, the arguments for and against have already been well rehearsed on these pages.

In response to concerns about the potential for 700 new homes to add to congestion, as people travel elsewhere for work, developer Bloor Homes says it will help to fund improvements to the bus service between Carterton and Oxford.

However, as those who use the buses now know full well, journey times are still at the mercy of traffic conditions on the A40 and in Oxford.

The recently-formed Witney Oxford Transport Group is right to call for a study of options for improved transport between West Oxfordshire and the city.

Funds may be tight but this problem will not go away and, in cases elsewhere, money from backers of major developments has been used to pay for similar studies.