A PERMIT May Be Required For Oxford Drivers To Drive Across The City

Residents in Oxford may require permits to drive across the city centre if council plans get the go-ahead.

Under the proposal, which will be decided upon next month, households will be given permits permitting them to drive across the city 100 days per year per vehicle. Up to three permits will be allocated to each household, with one licence per person.

The system will be policed by ANPR cameras at traffic filter sites across the metropolis. Exemptions will be allocated for buses, delivery vans, HGVs, motorbikes and mopeds. A £70 fine will be charged to motorists without permits.

Duncan Enright, a county councillor overseeing the policy, said it was designed to cut local traffic and improve public transport journey times.

At the end of the trial, which could be extended up to a maximum of 18 months, Oxfordshire County Council will make a decision over whether to make the traffic filters permanent.

The restrictions, due to be introduced in August, will take effect between 7 am and 7 pm seven days a week in four of the six camera sites, but not on Sundays in the other two.

But one local resident criticised the permit scheme for being established on the pointless administrative borders of the City of Oxford rather than on distance or need.

Another commenting on a local newspaper report of the proposals pointed out that drivers already paid road fund licence to use the roads, adding that this was nothing but a means to make more money.

The cost of traffic filters is estimated to be £3 million and will be primarily funded by the bus service improvement plan grant. The county council’s consultation on the trial scheme closed earlier this month.

Its cabinet is expected to make a decision on November 29, but Mr Enright said he was confident colleagues would give it the green light.

Last year, Birmingham floated similar recommendations as part of its new transport strategy to reduce car journeys into and through the city centre. Schemes directing traffic to the ring road are already in place in the Belgian and Dutch cities of Ghent, Groningen and Leuven.

At the heart of the Oxford plan is a desire to ease traffic and make city living more enjoyable, boosting neighbourhood living where people walk or cycle within a 20-minute radius for everyday goods and services.

The city, home to BMW’s Mini factory, gave rise to Britain’s first full-time park-and-ride scheme in 1973. In February, Oxford introduced a pilot Ultra Low Emission Zone on a handful of city streets, with plans to extend the scheme across the entirety of the city centre.

However, it seems that the vast majority of people in Oxford don’t want this to happen.

The council have already put the low-traffic neighbourhood’s in place and it’s caused absolute chaos and gridlock, and this system will only add to the problem and turn car journeys that presently take 15 minutes into a journey that will then take an hour, so I’m not sure how this will reduce car emissions.

They will say that using public transport would be better, but when local bus companies are many drivers short and cancel many buses every day, it then leaves people stranded at bus stops, and then there are the extremely high rates of death and injury to cyclists.

Oxford was a once booming city and now the council are doing their best to destroy it, but then councils don’t work for the general public and we should know that by now.