Call for city's traffic filter plans to be scrapped

A plan to install six traffic filters should be halted because of its potentially damaging effects on schools and hospitals, according to a Labour councillor.

Liz Brighouse, leader of Oxfordshire County Council's Labour group, also said one of Oxford's low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) bollards should be removed.

A trial for new traffic filters was postponed in July because of delays to work on the Botley Road rail bridge by Network Rail.

Andrew Gant, the council's cabinet member for highways, said he was "profoundly disappointed" that Labour had "given up" on the traffic filters.

Councillor Brighouse said the decision to install traffic filters in 2022 had "timed out" because of delays to the reopening of Botley Road.

She added Labour would improve Oxford's LTNs, and called for the bollard on Crowell Road in Cowley to be removed because there was "not public support" for it.

Oxford needed a "fresh approach" on transport, she said, which included using the Citizens Assembly scheduled to begin next month, which would be representative of the city's residents.

She added Labour would "change the way decisions are made" if elected as the largest party on the County Council at local elections in May.

In response, councillor Gant said: "The traffic filters are intimately connected with delivering better bus services.

"Bus companies will run more services if they don't get stuck in congestion."

He added that while he welcomed the Citizens' Assembly, Councillor Brighouse was "pre-judging" what it might recommend and members of the Labour group were "all over the place".

"Nobody can vote for a Labour policy on transport because nobody knows what it is - including them," he said.

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.