Oxford LTNs: Controversial traffic scheme decision delayed

Hundreds of people protested against Oxford's Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in June

A decision on whether to make three controversial traffic calming schemes permanent has been delayed.

Most respondents to a council-run consultation over the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Oxford said they were opposed to them last year.

But Oxfordshire County Council officers had recommended they were approved with mitigations.

A trial of the schemes for Church Cowley, Temple Cowley and Florence Park will continue indefinitely.

Tim Bearder, the council's cabinet member for highway management, said the authority concluded late on Wednesday that "given the sheer volume of emails and anger expressed" he would not make the decision alone.

He said that "it wouldn't be right for one individual to make a decision in that context" and said it was "appropriate" for its cabinet to make a decision instead.

'Respectful engagement'

Mr Bearder said he was hopeful the council could hold an emergency cabinet meeting in March, and if not it would be decided at April's meeting.

"Believe me, I want to get this finished more than anybody because it's filling my inbox, it's consuming my life and there are lots of other priorities I need to get on with," he said.

"But when I took legal opinion and it became obvious that people were going to protest or do a judicial review against what I decided, it was at that point, I thought: what we need to do is take this to cabinet so it can be completed without dissent."

The deputy leader of Oxford City Council Tom Hayes said he and its leader Susan Brown had "pushed hard" for the decision to be taken out of Mr Bearder's hands.

"We have problems to fix but a fundamental principle of all decision-making is respectful engagement with citizens. That's missing here," Mr Hayes tweeted.

The authority received about 2,400 responses in its consultation. Of those, 63% said they objected, 11% had "concerns", while 26% said they supported the schemes.

A council spokesperson said on Wednesday that it was "committed to listening to all views" after it posted a video on its Twitter page that featured five people who spoke in favour of the schemes.