This petition is for the removal of Low Traffic Neighborhood (LTN) road closures in the Church Cowley, Florence Park & Temple Cowley areas of Oxford.

Oxfordshire County Council in collaboration with Oxford City Council have implemented road closures & controlled parking measures in the above areas.

Despite minimal consultations with residents of these areas, the County Council have pushed on with the implementation regardless of objections.

The consultations & surveys were heavily weighted so that the results favoured the scheme.

There was no way of actually registering your objections to the scheme or even flatly saying no to them.

Therefore the “consultations” allowed no way to say no to them & were designed so that any participation in the survey could be interpreted as agreement.

Additionally, the consultations & surveys were not widely sent out to all residents of the affected areas, as claimed & the feeling is that these were mainly sent to residents that favoured the scheme.

From the County Council consultation page;

https://consultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Cowley_ExperimentalLowTraffic/consultationHome

What did Cowley residents say about the LTN?

In December 2020, we sent out letters to all residents inviting them to fill in an on-line asking their opinion of the LTN proposals. Over 1000 residents responded to the survey.

Residents in all 3 areas expressed majority support for their local LTN proposal.

The figures in the table from the consultation page above are simply not enough to push on with this ill thought out scheme, for example:

Church Cowley Area

Total Support = 59%

Fully Support = 46%

Support with reservations = 13%

Neutral or no answer = 3%

Do not Support = 38%

These figures clearly show from the County Council's own figures, that there was not enough support, yet they pushed on with the implementation regardless of the opposing views & feeling of the residents affected.

 

Residents of these areas have the following concerns.

• The blocking of roads is going to have a negative & hugely disruptive impact the residents living in these areas.
• They will increase travel times for residents.
• They are excessive & actually block access to residents own roads where they live.
• They will have a negative impact on businesses in the area, specifically straight access to the shopping in Church Cowley.
• Adversely affect resident’s own businesses   
• Residents of LTN affected areas should have free access through their own area in their cars. This is right that should not be taken away from affected residents.
• Will in no way reduce pollution or traffic congestion.
• Will actually increase the above into other areas