Dame Cheryl Gillan has joined angry Great Missenden residents in calling for controversial road widening works in the village to be halted immediately.

The Chesham and Amersham MP has raised her "grave concerns" about the widening of Frith Hill and Link Road in Great Missenden with transport secretary Grant Shapps MP.

The work is due to get underway on October 14 - despite a petition from angry residents slamming the unwanted work.

Link Road is the main route in and out of a village which contains three schools, between them accommodating nearly 2,000 pupils, an international attraction in the form of the Roald Dahl Museum with around 60,000 visitors a year and a popular Chiltern Line railway station.

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A petition was launched by former independent district councillor for Great Missenden, Seb Berry, which gained more than 1,500 signatures before it was handed into HS2's community engagement team on Thursday last week.

Mr Berry said the temporary closure of the main road will cause “huge disruption” to traffic and village life well into 2020 - and said it was "utterly absurd" that the work will still go ahead.

Dame Cheryl has now weighed in on the debate, saying the road widening work needs to be halted until the outcome of the HS2 review, chaired by Douglas Oakervee, is known.

Dame Cheryl met with Douglas Oakervee, Chair of the HS2 Review group last month, and was advised that the board will be reporting on their findings to the Transport Secretary at the end of October.

Following the Transport Secretary’s announcement last week that 11 ancient woodland sites which were due to be affected by preparations to build HS2 will be deferred, stating that a balance must be struck between keeping the programme on track, and recognising that some works cannot be undone, Dame Cheryl has requested a "similar balance be struck again" in Great Missenden until the future of the HS2 project is clearer.

She has asked for a "positive response to her request which is only common sense" at this stage of the review.

Bucks County Council told the Bucks Free Press that they had written directly to the prime minister to ask that all the HS2 enabling works be halted until the HS2 review outcome is made public - but the government did not agree to the request.

The petition against the road widening works is still live - and has more than 2,000 signatures. To sign, go to you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-link-rd-widening-great-missenden-bucks