London Road Study: letter to the editor

6.43.47pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 26th Jul 2005

Headington city councillors David Rundle (left) and Stephen Tall

My colleague David Rundle and I have today sent the following letter to the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times outlining our concerns with the London Road Study. (For our full and detailed response see today's Opinion piece, 'Response to the London Road Study consultation'.)

Sir,

The future of the London Road has taken up many column inches in your letters pages. And rightly so, as the plans for it will affect the whole of Headington and Marston. Many correspondents have expressed anger at the proposals, and at the lack of consultation undertaken by the County Council. But one thing still deserves to be spelt out: the Study so far is a dismal missed opportunity and, to be blunt, a waste of taxpayers' money.

A study is certainly needed: with the expansion at the John Radcliffe, Churchill and Nuffield, Headington is fast becoming the hospital hub for Oxfordshire. As a result, more and more traffic will try to get into the area on roads that simply cannot cope with the volume.

The Study offers two half-baked 'solutions'. The first, Approach 1, suggests altering London Road in order to improve the bus services. Leave aside the fact that this will make things more dangerous for both pedestrians and cyclists, this Approach won't solve the problem on the consultants' own admission. And so here comes Approach 2 - the nuclear option of closing part of London Road. The obvious effect of this will be to push traffic into the surrounding areas of Marston, Northway, Old Headington and Old Road. But the consultants freely admit that they have not measured what impact a road closure will have.

This is no way to plan the future of our area. The Study has failed to recognise one simple fact: as soon as vehicles come off the ring-road into Headington or Marston, the problem has started. So better Park and Ride provision is needed to ensure people can visit our area without creating gridlock. It's about time the County Council took action to provide more Park and Ride spaces rather than throwing money at inconclusive studies.

The clock is ticking until the John Radcliffe doubles in size. The situation must be faced with more urgency than has so far been evident.

Yours faithfully,

David Rundle & Stephen Tall

City Councillors (Lib Dem), Headington Ward