NEW ROAD HELD UP BY ‘CRAYFISH’

A PROPOSED relief road in Watlington has been delayed by the possible presence of a rare species of crayfish.

Oxfordshire County Council is seeking to convene an extraordinary meeting of its planning committee next month after the
£19.3 million bypass scheme missed consideration this month after additional ecological data was sought.

The Watlington relief road aims to provide an alternative route and direct access to the B4009, on either side of the town, without the need to travel through the historic, narrow centre.

It is designed to reduce congestion, noise and air pollution in the town as well as connect existing and proposed housing developments around the northern and western sides of the town. The delay to the project stems from concerns that white-clawed crayfish, an endangered native species, may inhabit Chalgrove Brook, which runs through the town.

The 1.4-kilometre road would cross the brook, a chalk stream, between the two housing developments. This section of the road includes a new bridge over the brook and a roundabout at the junction with the B480 Cuxham Road. The Henley Standard understands Watlington Parish Council met with the county council’s design team, who informed them there was concern the freshwater crayfish could have entered the brook after a fish ladder was built by the River Thame Conservation Trust further downstream in July 2023.

This created a channel that bypasses an old mill structure which previously limited fish movement upstream to the brook.

However, the county council said this week there is no evidence of the brook having any white-clawed crayfish, which is a bronze-coloured crustacean with pale undersides to its claws.

It is the only crayfish native to the British Isles that is under threat from the invasive North American signal crayfish.

The delay comes at the same time as traffic jams have built up in and around the town due to gas mains replacement work that started on Monday.

The work by SGN has meant the closure of Shirburn Street, a section of the B4009 into the town, and is anticipated to take three months to complete.

Diversions have caused gridlock, affecting trade for local businesses. Nicky Smallbone, who chairs Watlington Parish Council, described the latest delay to the relief road as “very, very disappointing”.

She said: “There was a planning committee meeting in June and it was meant to go to that but it was delayed due to the possibility that the crayfish could be in the brook.

“They had to get the River Thame Conservation Trust to look into it. If they miss it in July the next meeting won’t be until September.

“The whole thing started with our neighbourhood plan and that was back in 2018 so we have been waiting that length of time.

“With the roadworks at the moment all the traffic is trying to get into Watlington down the side streets. If we had the relief road this would not happen.

“Watlington is such a lovely place, so it’s a real shame.”

Councillor Smallbone said the parish council had been doing everything it could to resolve the issue.

She said: “It’s so frustrating because we have residents asking us what’s going on and we as volunteers spend a lot of time attending meetings and trying to get this going smoothly.

“We have fortnightly meetings with the county council and they are frustrated as well. We have done have all we possibly can.

“We have given them every bit of help that they have asked for.”

Fellow parish councillor Steve Bolingbroke called the delay “incredibly frustrating”.

“If you can’t build a road in seven years, in which time a developer has built 400 homes and sold most of them, then we have a problem.

“People in Watlington have been campaigning for years, in which we have seen an increase in new houses and population, but we haven’t got the thing we wanted in return.”

Cllr Bolingbroke said the parish council had written to county council leader Liz Leffman asking when the project would be completed.

In February the county Council assigned the bypass project £11.1million in its 2025/26 budget.

The planned road would run from the western side of Watlington on the B4009, loop northwards and connect back on the eastern side.

It would provide access to the new Bloor Homes development, Red Kite View, off Britwell Road, and Redrow scheme, Hampden Meadows, which is currently under construction in Cuxham Road.

Opponents of the project say it will increase traffic in the county. The concern over the endangered species of crayfish is just the latest in a series of delays to the project, for which a planning application was initially submitted in December 2023.

The project was scheduled to be presented to the county council’s planning committee in March but was delayed after planners requested further information. This followed formal objections by the Environment Agency and Active Travel England, among others.

In April, it was announced the decision would be delayed until after the local elections in May.

In March 2024 the Environment Agency objected to the scheme, saying it posed an “unacceptable effect on the ecological value of the watercourse”, among other reasons.

It said this was “critical” as the chalk brook housed the only verified population of brown trout in the River Thame catchment.

These fish are sensitive to pollution and the agency said it was concerned that run-off water from the new road could harm their habitat.

The council then submitted updated plans to move the Chalgrove Brook further from the road and reshape it to follow a more natural, winding path, similar to its original course. A county council spokeswoman said: “A planning application for the scheme was submitted in December 2023.

“However, some additional information to supplement the original application (a Regulation 25 response) was identified as being required by the county planning authority.

“Additional information was submitted to the authority at the end of October 2024. A response to an additional Regulation 25 letter that was issued by the authority in early February was submitted at the end of May.

“The response has confirmed that there is no evidence of white-clawed crayfish being present in Chalgrove Brook.

“The Regulation 25 response that was submitted at the end of May is currently being validated by the authority after which it will be uploaded to the planning portal and be subject to a further consultation period. We anticipate a planning decision in the summer.”

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