Bucks County Council supports the southern (Aylesbury) route for the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway

Buckinghamshire County Council’s preferred option

1) What is Buckinghamshire County Council’s preferred Corridor and why?

Buckinghamshire County Council’s preferred option for the route of the Corridor is the Southern Option (Road Option A on the Expressway Options diagram below).This proposed route is near to Aylesbury.

 3 Buckinghamshire County Council’s preferred option is the Southern corridor linking Oxford/M40/Thame/Aylesbury and Milton Keynes. This selection mirrors our preference set out in the BCC’s response to the National Infrastructure Commission’s call for evidence on the Oxford – Cambridge growth corridor. This was submitted by BCC in 2016.

 The key reasons for selecting this as the preferred corridor are the anticipated housing and economic growth along this corridor and the current lack of connectivity.

 BCC’s preference for the Southern road option is based largely on planning for the future of growth along the southern corridor stretch. By selecting a corridor with a high level of expected growth, it would help ensure that any infrastructure investment would maximise the return on investment through the creation of new homes and jobs. If there is no national investment planned we risk having a piecemeal approach to infrastructure which may be detrimental to towns and areas where this growth is planned.

Aylesbury Vale’s emerging Local Plan1 suggests that somewhere in the region of a housing requirement of 27,400 new homes over the plan lifespan (up to 2033) -19,400 to meet the districts own needs and 8,000 of unmet need from other authorities under the Duty to Cooperate. Within the district, the southern option takes in some of Aylesbury Vale’s largest proposed growth areas; the county town of Aylesbury, Westcott and Woodlands Enterprise Zones, planned growth in nearby Thame and links to Didcot Garden Town (Thame and Didcot both being located in Oxfordshire) .)