This page was updated in January 2021
No Expressway Group’s Westminster Events
On 26th February 2020, No Expressway Group took the campaign to Westminster to tell the government to scrap the Ox-Cam Expressway and over inflated target of 1 million houses across the Ox-Cam Arc.
NEG had a fantastic day, taking taking the petition of nearly 15,000 signatures from outside Parliament, delivering it to 10 Downing Street. We also held a cross-party event in Parliament for MPs and Peers to find out more about our campaign and engage in genuine discussion. This was co-hosted by Layla Moran (MP for Oxford West & Abingdon, Lib Dem), Greg Smith (MP for Buckingham, Conservative) and Daniel Zeichner (MP for Cambridge, Labour). We also had excellent support from Ben Everitt (MP for Milton Keynes North, Conservative).
This short film gives a taster of what happened on the day. You will hear from MPs and members of NEG, including some of our younger contingent.
(Lanterns made with the kind support of Alan Horton of Brill Crafts)
Expressway Stories
Expressway Stories show what is good and beautiful about the places in which we live and what we will lose if the Oxford-Cambridge expressway goes ahead. We want our children and grandchildren to see them as we have seen them, and not just as a video on a screen.
Expressway Story 1 Otmoor
This first 5 minute Expressway Story film “Expressway Story - Otmoor”, features the artist Nick Mynheer talking about Otmoor, its influence on his work, the importance of open countryside, and what could be lost if the expressway were to go ahead.
Expressway Story 2 Chilton
In this second Expressway Story, Duncan’s Story - The Birds of Chilton, third generation farmer Duncan Parker talks about the birds of Chilton and their importance to his farm. We see chicks being tagged and an environmental study underway!
The professional ecologist who carried out this survey had previously conducted similar surveys across five counties. He concluded that “a farmstead in Chilton (Duncan’s farm!) boasts the top breeding bird percentage figures”. Of the 96 species of bird recorded in the Chilton survey, 46 of which were deemed to have bred, or likely to have bred on site, 42 are of conservation concern (23 ‘amber’ and 19 ‘red’-listed species).
All this could be destroyed if the expressway were to go ahead.
Expressway Story 3 Wotton
Our third Expressway Story covers the beautiful, Grade 1 listed Wotton House and Park, just North East of Brill in Buckinghamshire. The landscape was originally designed by Capability Brown but, after WWII and use of the building as a school, the Park had become completely over-grown, almost a ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Much love and attention to detail have brought both the House and Park back to life again, as told here by David Gladstone and Michael Harrison. We are now able to see the Park in its original glory, perhaps for the first time in over 100 years.
Beautiful landscapes such as this are threatened by road and rail developments, as has already happened nearby at both Waddesdon and Hartwell House, with HS2 going within a few hundred metres of the latter.
Do you have an Expressway Story worth sharing? Contact us here.
Early Campaign Events
In 2018 we held two events to raise awareness of the then threat of an expressway going across the wetlands of Otmoor - thus following the track originally proposed for the M40 in the 1970s and 1980s - a proposal that was eventually rejected after a very long Public Inquiry.
The Otmoor Riots
Our second event was a re-enactment of the Otmoor Riots in 1830, when the local people tore down enclosures that had been put up around previously Common Land used for Centuries for communal grazing. Our re-enactment took place in Bonn Square Oxford in September, during the annual St Giles Fair, thus commemorating the timing of the original riots. Read more about our event here.
Flooding East of Oxford on the Ox-Cam Expressway Corridor, Christmas Eve 2019
Before Christmas 2019 there was substantial flooding in many different areas along the Oxford - Cambridge Expressway Corridor. On Christmas eve, NEG shot drone footage of a small section of flooding to the East of Oxford, on what’s known as Corridor B, sub-option B3!
In this short film you can see flooding around Waterperry, Waterstock and Shabbington.
This is just one small area affected of many. See more about flooding South of Milton Keynes here, and more images of flooding on our facebook page here.
Where do Highways England plan to put an Expressway? Where will all the new housing be developed.. and will it need to be on stilts??
Flooding on the Ox-Cam Expressway Corridor, January 2021
Once again in January 2021 there was extensive flooding of Otmoor and adjacent regions as the River Ray over-flowed on to its extensive floodplain.
The structure that comes into sight around minute 2 in this Youtube clip are the rifle butts along Otmoor Lane leading from Beckley to the RSPB Reserve on Otmoor (with the radio masts at Beckley visible in the distance).
Flooding events are becoming increasingly frequent across the country. The practice of building on flood plains must be avoided. In recent years the percentage increase in houses built on flood-plains has been greater than that of houses built on non-flooded areas (admittedly from a much lower base).
This madness has to stop!
