A DIRECTOR of motorcycle firm Harley-Davidson has hit out at the handling of £10m roadworks starting near Didcot.

Oxfordshire County Council is today due to begin a 55-week project to convert the Milton Interchange into a hamburger junction.

But Wantage resident Rob Lindley – motorcycle firm Harley-Davidson’s managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa – said people were not given enough notice.

The father-of-two commutes on the A34 to his firm’s offices in Garsington Road, Cowley, via the Milton junction.

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He wrote to county council leader Ian Hudspeth and said: “Like most Oxfordshire motorists I was relieved to see the conclusion of the Southern Bypass works [in December].

“However, it was with dismay that on my way to work [on Thursday] I saw the sign at the Milton Interchange roundabout, saying ‘work starts here on January 12 for 55 weeks. Expect delays’.”

Mr Lindley pointed to the council’s website, which on Friday night still had no information about when the work would start.

He also said a northbound slip road planned for Chilton should be built first, to divert traffic away from Milton, and challenged Mr Hudspeth to guarantee that third parties would be banned from carrying out work on diversion routes during the 55 weeks.

The scheme will see a road built through the centre of the Milton Interchange, from the westbound A4130 onto the northbound A34 towards Oxford.

The A34 Milton Park link, eastbound A4130, and southbound A34 off-slip approaches will also be widened.

Council spokesman Dominic Llewellyn-Jones said that until January 26 the works carried out would be done between 10pm and 6am.

But he would not provide further information about the project’s schedule.

Mr Lindley criticised the project’s planning and said previous roadworks at Kennington had affected about half of his 100 staff.

He added: “With all the roadworks around Oxford we have moved a lot of our staff on to different, more flexible working patterns.

“While that is fine for shorter periods of time, it is not the way we want to operate our business.

“We need to work the same way and the same times as our dealers and colleagues around the region and during these works we have not been able to do that.”

The Oxford Mail tried to contact county council leader Mr Hudspeth for comment on Mr Lindley’s letter, but received no response.

But county council cabinet member for transport David Nimmo Smith said: “This junction is another pinch-point and although we are not looking forward to another series of works it has to be done.

“Making this junction into a hamburger will increase capacity and mean we can deal with the economic growth we are seeing at the moment.

“People do not necessarily appreciate how we manage things when they get stuck in traffic, but we have looked at the options and this is the best way to do it.”

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