The Friends of GNP (Grandpont Nature Park) members stood outdoors the Oxfordshire County Council workplace on Tuesday with placards forward of the meeting, able to current a 1,500-strong petition to members of the chamber.
They have been objecting to plans for the Oxpens River Bridge which committee members at an Oxford City Council planning meeting gave the inexperienced gentle to in March.
The bridge will hyperlink Osney Mead to Oxpens. (Image: Oxfordshire County Council)
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The bridge will hyperlink Osney Mead to Oxpens, the location of a brand new Oxford quarter and it additionally depends on county council help.
Objectors have questioned the necessity for a further £10m bridge at the Grandpont Nature Reserve when there’s already one “two minutes away” and recommended it might “trash” the native habitat.
Speaking out at the meeting, objector Dan Glazebrook mentioned: “Grandpont Nature Reserve is a gorgeous and much-loved piece of countryside, important to the well being and wellbeing of 1000’s of native residents.
“Yet there not a single residents’ group in Grandpont has been consulted concerning the bridge and the urbanisation of the reserve entailed by the destruction of the present footpath and its substitute by a 4.5m cycle freeway.
“Councillors, that is simply as a lot a county council venture as it’s a metropolis council one.Â
“You are paying for it – and, because the highways authority, you’ll ‘adopt’ it as soon as it’s constructed.
“You are basically paying the town council to construct it for you.
“The collaboration agreement between the two councils states that the county can pull out and demand return of the funds if the city has made untrue or misleading representations concerning the bridge.”
Addressing the chairman, Alison Rooke, after his speech, Mr Glazebrook mentioned the Save GNP group would love a meeting with a political consultant of the council.
Ms Rooke mentioned “sorry we have to move on now” and recommended the council wouldn’t be capable to present a solution proper now.
Mr Glazebrook requested whether or not that was “a no”.
The protest comes as Hinksey Park ward Labour councillor Anna Railton has defended the bridge saying it was handed “through two committees made up of democratically elected members”.Â
She added: “Both instances members did not discover a legitimate planning cause for refusal.
“I’ve persistently and overtly backed this scheme as strolling and biking infrastructure that permits a lot wanted housing and brings the paths in Grandpont Nature Reserve as much as present requirements earlier than heaps extra folks begin to use it.
“It makes use of funding that can very seemingly in any other case be spent on a highway venture elsewhere within the county.
“As ward member I have spoken to and emailed a few hundred people about this and it is fair to say opinion is split.”
Protesters have been instructed their is generally a 10-day watch for formal responses to a petition.
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