A Banbury councillor has slammed plans to ban traffic and create 'quiet lanes', saying drivers will simply use other roads as rat runs.

Cllr Kieron Mallon has slammed Oxfordshire County Council’s (OCC) latest roads plan which will close off stretches of roads to traffic to create routes for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders where there is an alternative or adjacent road available.

Ten initial ‘quiet lane’ routes were announced last week – see report here. Hanwell Lane, which runs between Hanwell and Southam Road near Great Bourton, is one of several rural roads across Oxfordshire being considered as a quiet lane.

The plan was confirmed in spite of Thames Valley Police coming out against the idea calling them ‘highly inappropriate’ as the county council imposes 20mph speed limits around Oxfordshire.

Hanwell Lane, near Banbury, one of the roads being considered as a 'quiet lane'

placeholder image — Hanwell Lane, near Banbury, one of the roads being considered as a 'quiet lane'

Ruling councillors passed the scheme saying quiet lanes will ‘make rural roads and key links between urban areas more attractive to a wider range of road-users’.

Mr Mallon – county councillor for the Easington division of Banbury – said: “Despite objections from Thames Valley Police, who know what they are talking about, these ‘inappropriate‘ so-called quiet lanes are due to be implemented by OCC.

"The county council are using the Oxford area as the starter of all these crazy schemes with a view to rolling them out countywide.

"So, rural lanes near villages in the Banbury area, linking to another village, will become closed to cars. The traffic will just rat run down other roads leading to congestion, confusion and add to pollution on other rural roads.”

Cllr Kieron Mallon, who says establishing 'quiet lanes' is a waste of council tax payers' money

Mr Mallon described it as ‘another case of you-couldn’t-make-it-up’.

“Perhaps when Oxfordshire County Council disappears in a few years’ time the new North Oxfordshire Council, hopefully made up of councillors who understand a market town and its rural environment, will stop these costly inappropriate wastes of taxpayers money.”

The first quiet lane will be at Stanton St John which is being introduced as part of ‘overall traffic calming measures’ forming part of the scheme.

The project has been in progress for several years and will be included in the wider scheme of 10 ‘experimental’ orders.

The other nine roads have not yet been confirmed – proposals include streets in Blackthorn Village, Fawler, Towersey, Goring, Kennington, and Aston Rowant. Some roads have been removed from contention amid local opposition.