Oxford traffic filters ‘furious’ plea as start date approaches

Following the planned reopening of Botley Road at the end of August, city visitors will no longer be able to purchase a £5-a-day congestion charge permit, and drivers passing automatic number plate recognition cameras during charging times will face a £70 fine.

The policy is called traffic filters, and the change is planned for September 14 with a six-month public consultation set to open on the same day.

The plans were approved in November 2022, but have been delayed due to the long-running Botley Road closure, with the congestion charge used as a temporary transition measure.

Congestion charge sign and camera (Image: Isabella Harris/NQ)

County transport boss Gareth Epps is “confident” the reopening will not be delayed again and said he hopes the switch means “people will be able to move about as freely, if not freer, than they are now with buses moving rather than being stuck in traffic jams, people being able to get around walking and cycling”.

He added: “People will enjoy the fact that the city is open for business and every point in the city will be freely accessible without passing through a charge point.”

Business owners from the Oxford Business Action Group (OBAG) do not agree – some say the impact will be “devastating”, has left them “depressed” and considering closure.

Oxford business owners at County Hall (Image: Isabella Harris/NQ)

Niaz Ali, co-owner of Hollow Way Autoparts, said the policy is creating “a hostile environment to run a small business”.

He said: “I talked to small business owners on our road today and they were all so depressed and have basically thrown in the towel.”

Yola Drage, who runs La Cucina in St Clement’s, said she and other owners had hoped the recent council cabinet reshuffle, which saw Mr Epps take the transport job, could enable a change in direction.

She said: “For St. Clement’s businesses, the councillors’ decisions concerning the traffic filter plan means we either survive or close.

“It is distressing to be in this postcode lottery.

“How is it fair that some businesses are forced to lose out on custom because they’re located near a congestion charge point while those outside Oxford are free of restrictions and customers can get to them more easily?”

Fraser Jones owns Barefoot Bakery and called the filters “another damaging move from a council that has no consideration for local businesses”. 

He described “zero consultation” with owners.

Restaurateur and OBAG spokesperson, Bernadette Evans, said: “We’re furious that customers wanting to arrive by car will be made even more unwelcome in our city when the traffic filters replace the congestion charge, and we just don’t understand why the council is doing this to us.”

She questioned why the council were not “doing their jobs properly and forming a business task force” amid “all the other economic headwinds many small businesses are experiencing”.

Bernadette added: “But they’ve done absolutely nothing to help, they have no interest or experience whatsoever in high street businesses and are making it even harder to trade by restricting how customers reach our businesses.

“If only they would get themselves to east Oxford and speak to actual business owners they might begin to have some understanding of the hardship they’re causing.”

Mr Epps previously agreed to meet with OBAG owners, but this has not yet happened.

He said: “We are getting dates in diaries.”

The transport boss says he has met with some owners, been in touch with businesses to make them aware of permit exemptions and is “open to a full discussion”.

He added: “If something feels as though it should be simpler than it is, there might be a reason for that, and I might be able to help.”

Oxfordshire residents will continue to have the same number of permits to enter the zone covered by filters, as they currently do for the congestion charge – these should transfer automatically.

Mr Epps called for residents who have not applied for permits to do so online.

He said while “most people don’t use a car to access the city centre”, there is a “range of permits available free of charge, including for people with regular hospital appointments”.

Since its introduction, over 205,000 congestion charge fines have been cancelled, including some for ‘deceased’ drivers, motorists who were in prison, and emergency service vehicles.

Thousands of those cancellations occurred due to permit errors.

Congestion charge sign (Image: Isabella Harris/NQ)

Mr Epps said: “There is an initial grace period where people will just be sent warning letters rather than fines.

“But I’m acutely conscious that we need a system that is reliable and that works without people having to go back and make corrections.”

During the first six months of the traffic filter trial, the council will send a warning notice the first time any car goes through a traffic filter without a permit.

The cameras will remain at the same locations and operate at the same times as the congestion charge.

Those locations have prompted concern about displaced traffic causing issues for residential streets outside the charge zone, including for people attempting to access the city’s hospitals.

Cycling campaign group Cyclox, which supports the plans and “believes that traffic filters can be an effective way to reduce traffic, particularly private car use”, also wants this to be “kept under review”.

The filter trial period is up to 18 months, and Mr Epps said with the creation of a “permanent scheme” after this, “there are no reasons why the existing charging points should necessarily stay -these things can be moved”.

He insists “we are listening to feedback”, “the trial will be carefully monitored” and “changes have been made to, for example, permit types, in response to feedback”.

Leader of the county council Green Group, Ian Middleton, said confusion with the congestion charge has pushed him to support the traffic filters despite being initially “concerned”.

Councillor Ian Middleton (Image: Ian Middleton)

He still has some reservations, describing them as “experimental”, saying “we have to assess it when it’s been in place for long enough”.

Ian is positive about the impact of electric buses and said the policies were “part of the deal” to enable them by making traffic move better in the city.

Siobhann Mansel-Pleydell from Oxfordshire Liveable Streets campaign described the charge as having already created “cleaner air, safer streets, and real choice about how we get around”.

She said: “We welcome the move to traffic filters and support the test and learn approach.”

Robin Tucker, co-chair of The Oxfordshire Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel (CoHSAT) (Image: The Oxfordshire Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel (CoHSAT))

Robin Tucker, Co-Chair of the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel in Oxfordshire, said: “What we’ll be interested in, in a year’s time, is how the traffic filters compare to the congestion charge, but we are sure we won’t want to go back to the traffic nightmare of stuck traffic and dangerous rat-running from the ten years before that.”