In the recent Parish Council survey, 80% of Chearsley residents expressed their opposition to the plans for the new Expressway and the major development of new housing which will follow in its wake, including the building of 65,000 new homes in an area designated ‘East of Oakley’, just a few miles from our village. Following this result, the Parish Council agreed to declare its formal opposition to the plans at its last meeting (21st October)
The PC has sent representation to recent ‘Stronger Together’ meetings under the aegis of the No Expressway Group (NEG). This has given our village the opportunity to ‘compare notes’ with many other local village communities who share anxieties about the new plans.
For more information on the No Expressway Group, visit their website at: https://www.noexpressway.org/
The NEG has just launched a petition calling on the government to abandon plans for a new Oxford-Cambridge Expressway.The wording of the petition is as follows:
“We demand that the Government abandons plans for an Oxford to Cambridge Expressway, which include aspirations for vast growth rates (3-6 times national average) for cars, houses and people.
“The scale of development and urban sprawl will cause devastation to the environment, increased congestion that will harm local communities and wildlife, and a surge in air pollution that will damage our health for generations to come. Ecosystems and habitats are already stressed, with many species in catastrophic decline.
“With this scale and type of development, ‘net zero carbon’ targets are unattainable and ‘net environmental gain’ proven unachievable. We demand that the investment allocated to this project is put into public transport systems such as East-West Rail and its electrification instead.”
If residents wish to sign up for the petition, they can do so by visiting this link on the NEG website: https://www.noexpressway.org/petition-signup
There is also the opportunity to sign up for regular updates from the NEG team.
The NEG have also advised us that they are holding a ‘Call to Arms’ rally this weekend to help publicise their campaign. For any residents wishing to attend, it will take place as follows:
Date: Sunday 17th November
Timing: 11.00 – 12..00 (please arrive a little early)
Location: Brill Common (HP18 9TJ)
