A PETITION against the proposed Oxford-Cambridge Expressway has reached 12,500 signatures.

The petition, initiated by local campaigner Antony Melville, has been a key campaigning tool for groups and individuals campaigning against the road plan.

Since its launch, Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has said the Expressway is to be ‘reviewed.’

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New signings are invited at change.org/p/the-secretary-of-state-for-transport-chris-grayling-mp-cancel-the-oxford-to-cambridge-expressway

Mr Melville said today: "The Oxford to Cambridge Expressway is the most destructive aspect of the highly damaging ;Oxford-Cambridge arc; development, which threatens to build 1 million new homes across the area running from Swindon to Cambridge, on the business-as-usual car-based housing model which will provide all the traffic to fill the new road.

"But then, as with all new roads, it will of course generate new journeys by existing road users.

"This area has thousands of empty homes and a growing amount of empty buildings suitable for housing, especially empty shops. Government and councils should use the existing built environment and brownfield sites for housing, not our countryside.”