WORK on redesigning The Plain roundabout in East Oxford will be postponed in a bid to tackle the city’s congestion.

A series of roadworks schemes all scheduled for the same time has crippled Oxford’s traffic and work on The Plain was due to start on Monday.

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Traffic delays are leaving commuters frustrated

But yesterday Ian Hudspeth, the leader of Oxfordshire County Council, announced it would be postponed until after Christmas. The work involves narrowing the roads around the roundabout so cars go at slower speeds and cyclists feel safer.

Mr Hudspeth said: “Because of the concerns raised by many people about congestion on the roads we have decided to postpone work on The Plain roundabout until after Christmas.

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“That will hopefully be welcome news for anyone worried about the impact of the work starting next week.”

Abingdon Road has been closed in both directions at the Kennington roundabout, where a road is being built through the middle to tackle congestion. As a result, traffic was joining the ring road at Old Abingdon Road and at the Rose Hill roundabout via Donnington Bridge, where long waits were reported.

There are also roadworks at the Green Road roundabout and London Road in Headington.

The council said works were “necessary to stop congestion becoming the norm” and the change meant the A34 was “much clearer”.

  • Thirty-six per cent of voters on oxfordmail.co.uk said they were leaving home earlier or later because of the jams. Twenty-nine per cent said there had been no improvement on the roads recently, 17 per cent thought drivers were using other routes, 14 per cent were working from home and four per cent now used public transport.

 

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