A FIERCE attack on the planned Cogges Link Road was launched this week with thousands of leaflets dropped into homes and businesses in Witney.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is determined to enlist protesters against the county council's proposals as the public gets involved in commenting on the £15m scheme.

It said the road would simply 'dump' traffic from one bottleneck in the town to another.

And it was using the county council's own traffic forecasts drawn from a survey and report made by independent consultants.

The figures are based on flows recorded in the town in 2005, and used to draw up a 'Witney Traffic Model'. The forecast in flow changes as a result of the construction of the Cogges Link would see a dramatic drop of 57 per cent in Bridge Street — a major jam point, and the only traffic crossing over the River Windrush.

But the estimates also show that traffic flows in Station Lane (from the Ducklington Lane traffic lights to the Sainsbury's roundabout) would go up by 82 per cent.

The increase is alarming Station Lane businessman David Condon, who is also a spokesman for the West Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. He says that a survey he carried out showed that 80 per cent of the 100 plus businesses on the Station Lane industrial estate were against the Cogges Link.

"The expected increase in Station Lane traffic is not our forecast, it's the county council's own, which is worrying. The figures show that the road will have the effect of simply dumping Bridge Street traffic into Station Lane. That's no solution," he said.

"Station Lane, with all the firms down here, is a very busy end of town already. It doesn't need more traffic."

The CPRE's campaigning leaflet also highlights worries over the building of two bridges, both 26 metres long, over the two arms of the River Windrush, and the need to divert one arm into a new channel.

The county council announced four weeks ago its plans to go ahead with the Cogges Link — first put on the drawing board more than 20 years ago. It accepts there may be a public inquiry, and that, if built, the earliest it would be open would be 2012.

As part of public consultation it is holding an exhibition on the scheme at Witney's Marlborough Hotel on October 8, 3pm to 9pm, October 10, 10am to 6pm, and October 11, 10am to 1pm.

Ian Hudspeth, county cabinet member for transport, said comments — both for and against — would be received until November. A decision on the actual planning application will not be made until January next year. All comments, he assured, would be taken into account.

Mr Hudspeth said: "We have to take the overall picture.

"The figures the CPRE is using are from our own forecasts, but they are just that, forecasts."

Mr Hudspeth added: "We have to look at the overall picture, but the main thing that we noticed was that in Bridge Street, where there are 30,000 vehicle movements a day, traffic will be significantly reduced.

"There are a lot more statistics in the 'Witney Traffic Model', and I suggest you have to be careful how you use them."

The CPRE favours an alternative scheme, a four-way junction on the A40 Witney bypass at Shores Green. Forecasts for this show a 48 per cent cut in traffic in Bridge Street, but hardly any effect on traffic in Station Lane.

It also favours another four-way junction on the A40, west of the town at Curbridge, making use of the main road as a way from one side of Witney to the other without cluttering town centre roads.