Mark Simmons finds that, while healthy economic indicators and infrastructure improvements bode well for M40 towns, the surge in prosperity that the motorway was expected to provide remains elusive.
Drivers stuck in slow-moving traffic on the M40, as it sweeps dramatically down to junction 3 at High Wycombe, will be heartened at the prospect of an extra lane in each direction. Work is expected to begin soon on widening the motorway to four lanes (D4 standard) between junction 1a (M25 junction 16) and junction 3. The 7.5 mile programme is expected to cost over £40m.
Improved access to and from the M25 is expected if proposed widening of the London orbital is implemented. Following extensive lobbying against the construction of feeder roads, the existing motorway will be extended from four to five lanes between the M40 intersection and the M3.
Widening was also proposed as far as junction 4 on the M40, but the government review of roadbuilding last spring saw the 6.3 mile improvement reclassified as priority 2, making it unlikely to proceed in the foreseeable future. Part of the problem is the cost of adding extra lanes to the flyover that bisects Knaves Beech business centre and industrial estate. A knock-on effect is that approximately 8 acres (3.24ha) of Wycombe district council-owned land near junction 4 will not be released for development until the eventual alignment of the widened M40 is finalised.
It is a blight that the Buckinghamshire town could do without. “Between the hills, the green belt and the motorway, there is not a lot of land available,” says Lance Slater of Slater Associates. High Wycombe is arguably the greatest beneficiary of the motorway to date. It linked the town with London and the motorway network as the traditional economic base moved away from paper mills and furniture manufacturing towards service-sector employment. More than 50% of High Wycombe’s workforce is employed in the finance or other service sectors. Overall unemployment in the Aylesbury and Wycombe travel-to-work area stands at 5.1% of the workforce, down from 7.4% two years before, and lower than the county average of 5.7%.
Office developments such as Kingsmead office campus and Knaves Beech business centre have proved very successful, with employers such as Beckman at Kingsmead and Dun & Bradstreet in its own buildings near the motorway. But the town has also retained a strong industrial presence, with firms such as United Biscuits and Searle present.
While planning authorities continue to resist the pressure to release greenbelt land, future development – and so growth potential – is likely to remain constrained. A change in current policies may be on the cards if Buckinghamshire county council is dismantled in the current government review, but John Gummer recently announced that the creation of four unitary authorities in place of the county will no longer go ahead. Wycombe district council, which was looking forward to unitary status, may appeal against the decision.
In Oxfordshire, proposed council reforms might see Cherwell district and west Oxfordshire merge, with Vale of White Horse and south Oxfordshire also coming together. Oxford City would carry unitary status. Again, the county has made a successful transition from car manufacturing to other employment sources: over 77% of the county’s workforce is concentrated in the service sector. The remains of the car industry here have disappeared with the clearance of the Cowley car works, which has planning permission for a mixed-use commercial and leisure development.
Unemployment in the Oxford travel-to-work area has dropped to 4.8% from 6.8% during the past two years. However, Oxford itself is some distance from the motorway, which, together with traffic congestion in the centre, may have inhibited stronger growth around the city. Plans are still in place for full pedestrianisation of Queen Street, Cornmarket Street and the High Street. The park-and-ride network could be expanded by the introduction of a rail shuttle between Oxford and Cowley using existing track alignments.
Population increases in Oxfordshire are predicted to concentrate on towns in the north of the county, such as Banbury, where growth of over 8% is forecast to 2001.
Confidence in this town is demonstrated by the development of 250,000 sq ft (76,200m2) of retail space at the Castle Quay scheme in the centre of Banbury, which is due for completion in 1997.
However, industrial and warehouse development along the motorway in this area has been slower than originally forecast. While Ralph Lauren and Moss Bros have taken space at Value Retail’s factory outlet outside Bicester, the MXL Centre, the first phase of Banbury business park, is still looking for tenants and other speculative schemes are thin on the ground.
For some tenants, the rail network is as important as the motorway. Tibbet & Britten’s decision to take a warehouse at Bicester Park distribution centre last year was significantly influenced by a rail connection. Passenger services to M40 towns have improved steadily with the introduction of Chiltern Turbo trains running hourly between Birmingham Snow Hill and London Marylebone, stopping at Warwick, Leamington Spa, Banbury and Bicester.
While rail services have improved, new road projects in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire were abruptly curtailed by last year’s government review. A 3.8 mile widening to dual-carriageway (D2 standard) of the A43 between junction 10 and the B4031 came off best. The improvement, aimed at easing access to Buckingham and Northampton from the motorway, is classified as priority 1, but no start date has been announced.
Two other dualling programmes – 8 miles of the A43 in Northamptonshire and the 7 mile Witney bypass in Oxfordshire – were relegated to priority 2. Plans for the A40 Headington bypass were dropped completely. The outlook for a suggested radial route linking the M40 near Oxford with the M1, M11 and East Coast ports, via Aylesbury, Luton and Stevenage, is therefore dim at present.
Air transport could play more of a part in improving the fortunes of Oxfordshire. In the Cherwell district, the former US airbase at Upper Heyford has been handed back to the MOD. The 1,300 acre (526.11ha) site, about two miles from junction 10 may be released for civilian use.
But in the Vale of White Horse, a group of private developers has withdrawn a proposal for a £4.5bn airport near Abingdon. The Lox project could have opened in 2007 and would have relieved the congestion of London’s airports, say the developers. A rail link would have connected the airport to the London – Bristol main line and road traffic would have reached the airport from the M40 via a new motorway link to the A34. The withdrawal came after transport secretary Brian Mawhinney rejected calls for an extra runway in the South East, opting to increase capacity at existing locations without encroaching on new land. The Lox proposal fell foul of regional planning guidance in this respect.
