There are rumours the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway, a Tory project so unpopular that they announced a review of it during the General Election, is about to be scrapped.

If true, this will be the result of the hard work and campaigning of hundreds of ordinary residents and campaign groups, including the No Expressway Group and the No Expressway Alliance.

Together, we have stood up to the plans and shown just how unpopular they are in our community. This motorway threatens to blight our landscape, threaten our environment and harm biodiversity.

But rumour and speculation are no substitute to a formal announcement from the Government.

Read also: Conservative MP for Henley says 'Expressway will now be scrapped'

That’s why, together with some of my MPs from across the political spectrum, I will be joining the No Expressway Group today in Westminster to lobby more MPs and deliver a petition to 10 Downing Street calling for the motorway to be scrapped.

I would like to both thank and congratulate the No Expressway Group for their work in collecting so many signatures – by adding our voices together we are making our opposition clear to the Government.

Time and time again on the doorstep in the recent election, the issue of the Expressway came up. Local anger over the Conservatives’ plans was clear. When the Government announced a ‘review’, we all saw a move in the right direction.

But what’s happened since then? We’ve heard virtually nothing from the Government, despite repeated questions from MPs in the area. The only answer we get is that we will hear ‘soon’.

This uncertainty and prevarication is not good enough, when we could be focusing on what needs to replace the Expressway. Further to that, Grant Shapps’ (the Secretary of State for Transport) refusal to meet with campaign groups is a real concern, and shows just how superficial this ‘review’ might really be.

I have repeated my calls in recent weeks for a fully electrified East-West Rail, something I hope the Government will back if and when it announces the end of the Expressway project.

We are now expecting to hear about the future of this massive motorway in the Budget, on March 11. Until then, we must continue to make our voices heard to make sure that the Conservatives do the right thing and scrap the Expressway once and for all.