CONGESTION-busting plans for Oxford’s streets need to be as strong and ambitious as possible, a city councillor has said.

Oxford City Council’s cabinet endorsed a scheme called Connecting Oxford at a meeting on Wednesday night.

At the meeting, Alex Hollingsworth, cabinet member for planning and sustainable transport, spoke about the importance of the scheme.

Mr Hollingsworth said: “Doing nothing here is not an option... because the city in which we live, the county in which we live will be choked by traffic.”

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Connecting Oxford will see several busy roads limited to use by only public transport in daytime hours, though there will be exemptions for other vehicles including taxis and ambulances.

This will be controlled through the use of camera-controlled bus gates, which will lead to fines for drivers using the roads at peak times.

There are also plans to introduce a workplace parking levy across the eastern area of the city.

This would mean employers which have more than 11 parking spaces would have to pay up to £600 per parking bay on their property.

The cabinet member said there would also be health benefits and social benefits to the plan, citing studies which have linked poor air quality to impacts on both mental and physical health as well as dementia.

Mr Hollingsworth said there is likely to be an impact on the local economy, as buses are able to move more easily throughout the city with less cars on the road, which will in turn attract more people to use public transport.

Oxford Mail:

Worcester Street, where a bus gate could be introduced.

He added: “This is a project where the city and county councils are working very closely together using our relevant powers to shape and influence the future of the city.”

There was a wide response from members of the cabinet about the plans for Connecting Oxford.

Marie Tidball, cabinet member for supporting local communities, said detailed work needed to be done to make sure disabled people were treated fairly under the plans.

Ms Tidball said the two councils needed to make sure cycle lanes were wide enough to ‘future-proof’ for bikes which could be ridden by wheelchair users.

Mr Hollingsworth said the cycle lanes could be made wider under the plans as less road space would be given over to traffic.

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He added that delivery bikes would also need larger cycle lanes as they became more popular.

Tom Hayes, cabinet member for zero carbon Oxford, said the scheme complemented the planned zero-emission zone, which was aimed at tackling pollution.

He added that the bus companies working in Oxford should be able to more quickly make their fleets electric if there was a boost to journey times and ticket sales through the scheme.

Mr Hayes said: “They will have less vehicles needed in their fleet and plausibly, they can then focus on making the vehicles in their fleet electric.”

A full business case for Connecting Oxford will now be drawn up.