Today there was an exhibition about the first phase of homes off the Dunmore Road in North Abingdon (425 from 900). The land includes part of the field to the right of the footpath to Sunningwell, and the field to on the left of the footpath – after the woodland round Tilsley Park.

Dunmore Road is part of the route round Abingdon. There will be two new junctions to serve the first 425 homes, and so traffic flow will be impacted.

The development will help finance the south facing slip lanes at the Lodge Hill junction onto the A34. That should reduce the amount of traffic on the Dunmore Road. However those Lodge Hill plans are currently lodged with the Highways Agency and they could be biding their time. The Oxford to Cambridge Expressway is also under consideration this year. So they might delay a decision on Lodge Hill until the expressway route is decided.

The exhibition was at the Northcourt Centre and was very similar to previous housing development exhibitions and comprised some stand up exhibition banners, maps scattered on tables, and representatives of the developers for people to talk to about the plans. You can view the same banners online and make comments at https://northabingdon.co.uk/.

The banners show which parts will be built by Barratt Homes, and which by David Wilson Homes, and examples of houses they built recently. They also show the estate roads, and green spaces (one is called LEAP)

The banners do not address the main local worry that these houses will be built before any infrastructure – that is not just the A34 slipways, but also the new primary school. Doctor surgery capacity in Abingdon will also an issue. I heard one developer representative saying ‘I am not a traffic expert’, but as always that is what many of the questions were about.