Botley Road was closed at the rail bridge in April 2023 and is expected to reopen on August 31 following repeated delays – initially the road was only expected to be shut for `12 months.

Roadworks have been taking place in Botley Road as part of a major Network Rail scheme to revamp Oxford station – so far construction work has cost an estimated £237m.

READ MORE: Countdown to Botley Road reopening

A new rail bridge was lowered into place in February and a new southern walkway opened on Friday – replacing a temporary walkway on the other side of the road.

Network Rail insiders have indicated there could be an announcement this week about the future of the project to upgrade the station, which includes plans to create a new western entrance which are not yet fully funded.

The new walkway has been welcomed by traders in Frideswide Square as its entrance is nearby and they now expect footfall to their businesses to increase.

The new walkway in Botley Road (Image: Andy Ffrench)

Chris Nash, senior sponsor for Network Rail, said: “The opening of this new walkway is an important step forward for people travelling to and from Oxford station.

“Once the project is completed, there will be two new, wider walkways/cycleways, providing safer and more convenient routes for pedestrians, cyclists and scooter users.

“We know the Botley Road closure has had a significant impact on local residents, businesses and passengers, and we’d like to thank everyone for their continued patience while we complete this complex programme of work.

“With the project now nearing completion, we’re focused on delivering the final stages of work that will improve access through the area, support future rail services and create a better experience for everyone travelling through Oxford.”

Amanda Suliman-Bell of Rainbow & Spoon boutique (Image: Andy Ffrench)

Amanda Suliman-Bell, who runs Rainbow & Spoon boutique in Frideswide Square is among businesses welcoming the new walkway.

The new northern walkway on the station side of Botley Road is expected to open later this year.

Businesses and residents have suffered more than three and a half years of misery as a result of the road closure.

One community campaigner, Julian Le Vay, who lives off Botley Road, has estimated that the loss to businesses in the area could amount to as much as £50m.

The new walkway in Botley Road (Image: Andy Ffrench)

Labour city councillor Susanna Pressel said earlier: “There are a lot of people who are counting down the days until Botley Road reopens – local residents, local businesses, people who live out to the west – and countless other people whose lives have been disrupted by this endless project.”

Residents are looking forward the reopening of the Botley Road at the end of next month.

One said: “I am so physically and emotionally tired of getting off one bus, walking to St Aldates and catching another bus to work.”

Another added: “The thought of not having to cross five additional roads when walking after getting off a bus and also not getting stuck behind slow walkers because I’m no longer kettled in by barriers is making me giddy.”

HM Treasury has published research on operational resilience in retail and hospitality, highlighting a gap between boardroom confidence and expectations of rising disruption.

The survey of 101 senior leaders in UK consumer-facing businesses was conducted with FreedomPay and Retail Economics. It found that 81% of respondents believe their organisation’s investment in resilience is broadly sufficient, even though 60% expect operational disruption to increase over the next three years.

The data focuses on businesses in retail, leisure and hospitality, where payment systems and customer-facing operations are directly exposed to outages. The report warns that this mismatch between confidence and risk expectations could leave companies vulnerable if cyber incidents, geopolitical shocks or systems failures interrupt trade.

Cyber attack was cited by 51% of leaders as a top risk shaping resilience strategy over the next three years, making it the most frequently named threat in the research. Geopolitical instability followed at 42%, while 82% said global political developments had already increased their focus on resilience.

The findings also suggest senior management is not uniformly convinced that resilience spending delivers wider commercial value. Nearly half of respondents, 48%, said executives in their industry think too much is already being spent on resilience, while 45% said executives do not fully appreciate its value.

Confidence gap

A smaller but significant share of leaders acknowledged gaps in current spending. Seventeen per cent said their organisation’s investment in resilience was insufficient.

That figure rose sharply among larger businesses. A third of large companies said investment was insufficient, compared with 15% of small businesses and 14% of medium-sized firms.

The results suggest larger organisations may have a clearer view of exposure across complex systems, supply chains and customer operations. At the same time, 67% of respondents said it is easy to secure board backing for resilience spending, indicating that access to budget may be less of a barrier than how directors judge the return on that spending.

Another measure in the research underlines that tension. Sixty-four per cent agreed that resilience investment reduces risk but delivers limited additional business benefit.

That view is significant in sectors where the commercial impact of an outage can be immediate. If payment systems fail, shops, restaurants and leisure venues can lose the ability to process transactions even when physical sites remain open.

Board priorities

The report argues that resilience is still often seen as a defensive cost rather than a core part of daily operations. In practice, that can make it harder for management teams to justify spending on systems designed to prevent events that may never visibly occur.

For boards, the challenge is compounded by the nature of resilience itself. Successful investment often means avoiding disruption rather than creating a visible new asset, making it harder to measure in conventional financial terms.

The research comes as the government has set out an economic agenda focused on stability after a prolonged period of political turnover. In that context, the findings raise questions about whether private sector businesses are placing enough weight on the systems that allow them to keep trading during disruption.

Retail and hospitality groups are particularly exposed because customer transactions sit at the centre of daily revenue. A payment outage, even if short-lived, can stop trade, affect consumer confidence and delay recovery if businesses cannot restore systems quickly.

The survey suggests many leaders already expect recovery times to lengthen in the coming years. That sits uneasily alongside the majority view that existing resilience investment is sufficient.

Sector exposure

The sample covered senior decision-makers with direct responsibility for risk management or membership of risk and audit committees in businesses with turnover above GBP £6 million. That means the findings reflect the views of executives responsible for assessing operational threats rather than a wider cross-section of employees.

Even so, the numbers point to a common concern across customer-facing sectors: threats are rising, but many boards remain comfortable with current levels of preparation. The result is a planning contradiction in which companies predict greater disruption while still judging present safeguards to be adequate.

Kevin Carson, senior vice president at FreedomPay, commented on the findings.

“This research shows a clear disconnect between how prepared businesses believe they are and the reality of the risks they themselves are forecasting,” said Kevin Carson, senior vice president at FreedomPay.

“Resilience cannot be treated as a box-ticking exercise or a cost to be minimised. As the new government takes over plans for the UK economy, it must address the invisible vulnerabilities in our business infrastructure. Resilience must be built into the everyday running of a business, particularly at the point where a business interacts with customers and takes payment. That is often the first thing to fail during a disruption, and the first thing customers notice. Closing this confidence gap now, before the next shock arrives, should be a priority for every UK boardroom.”

Kingsbury Racing, based at the historic Bicester Motion site in Oxfordshire since 2015, now occupies the entirety of Building 99, the Grade II-listed Engine Fitting Shop.

The expansion will allow the company to broaden its services into post-war and post-classic competition cars, in addition to its renowned work on vintage Bentleys.

Lewis Fox, operations director, said: “The extra room allows us to continue specialising in vintage competition Bentleys and other pre-war cars, while expanding into post-war and post-classic race cars.

“This, coupled with my previous experience at the cutting edge of the racing world, allows us to come in line with the collections of some of our clients, whose own rosters span many decades of desirable cars.”

Kingsbury Racing plans to relocate its machine shop to a larger area within the expanded facility and has taken on two new staff members to support the growth.

Its existing workshop will remain focused on Bentley’s Continuation cars, in addition to restoration and maintenance work for private clients.

Dan Geoghegan, CEO of Bicester Motion, said: “Ewen and his team are a true success story not just of this site but of historic motoring; they have simply gone from strength to strength over the past decade.”