New congestion charge data as grace period ends

As a "grace period" for Oxford's congestion charge comes to an end, the council behind it has published figures that it says show "improving city centre traffic".

Drivers caught going through one of the city's six congestion charging points without a permit will now receive a fine, instead of a reminder letter.

Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council's transport chief, said the newly published monthly figures showed a 22% increase in visitors to the city centre.

But Anne Gwinnett, director of Open Roads for Oxford, said many people were reporting getting stuck in traffic and "taking a lot longer to make the same journey".

The council data looked at city footfall, traffic and journey times compared to the same period last year, and will be published each month.

For November traffic volumes and journey times decreased at almost all sites with a congestion charging point in place.

Hythe Bridge Street saw the biggest decrease of 33%.

The area showing biggest increase in visitors, at 47%, was the Botley Road retail park, followed by 37% for the Templars Square in Cowley.

The authority said the congestion charge was "not the only factor that could have caused changes, and in some cases, it may not be the primary factor".

"What's more powerful than the data, to me, is the stories people have told us about how their lives and their journeys in the city have been transformed in a positive way," Mr Gant said.

"One month isn't long enough to draw firm conclusions, but we are able to see some signs of improvements on key bus routes such as the Abingdon Road.

"We can see that footfall in the city centre remains high, with an increase of [22%] year on year, albeit footfall trends were on the up prior to the congestion charge."

Ms Gwinnett said the results were "rather a mixed bag" and showing "the kind of patterns that we expected".

"As an example, traffic that used to go round The Plain roundabout and up St Clement's to get to the hospitals is now rerouting around the Headington area," she said.

Open Roads for Oxford is taking legal action over the congestion charge and Independent Oxford Alliance, which Ms Gwinnett chair, has been fighting against the traffic restrictions.

Ms Gwinnett said they had been hearing from people who saw it as "a difficult choice" between paying the charge or making extra time to avoid it.

She added that all the collected data was only from 07:00 to 19:00 when the congestion charge was in operation.

"What that doesn't capture is the traffic movement that might have moved outside of that period," she added.

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