Oxford’s transport leaders have dismissed appeals to suspend low-traffic neighbourhood restrictions as the city endures significant congestion during the second week of Oxfordshire County Council’s new traffic filtering system.
Motorists using Botley Road are enduring additional journey times of approximately half an hour during both morning and evening rush hours, with the route serving as the sole unrestricted corridor into the Westgate shopping centre and central Oxford.
Between Towns Road remains closed for essential maintenance, a situation that the Save East Oxford Businesses campaign group states has left the entire eastern section of the city at a standstill.
On Wednesday afternoon, Watlington Road, Garsington Road, and the Oxford Road stretch running into Cowley Road as far as The Plain all experienced heavy traffic volumes.
Iffley Road, functioning as the sole non-permit route to Magdalen College School, saw continuous queuing traffic extending towards Rose Hill.
The congestion appears to have impacted approaches to the ring road from both directions.
Temple Cowley ward representative Saj Malik has urged Oxfordshire County Council and its transportation leadership to dismantle the low-traffic neighbourhood barriers in the Cowley district to ease mounting traffic difficulties.
The authority responded by stating it would not abandon policies developed through careful planning simply to accommodate temporary road schemes.
Malik reported that commuters were trapped in queues stretching from thirty minutes to an hour in length, creating considerable pressure on local residents.
He noted that several streets received no advance warning that bus services would be rerouted.
Littlehay Road residents had questioned why the authority could not temporarily lift the restrictions until construction finished.
Malik stated that representations to council officers had produced no response.
One Littlehay Road inhabitant described arriving home at six-thirty in the evening after departing by bicycle at eight in the morning to discover cones positioned along the street and official notices indicating parking had been prohibited from the start of the day.
The resident noted that this effectively meant vehicles remained unlawfully parked through circumstances beyond their control.
The notices apparently warned that absent householders could return to discover penalty charges or vehicles removed by recovery operators.
A council spokesperson confirmed that essential resurfacing works on Between Towns Road would conclude by the week’s close.
The spokesperson emphasised that the authority’s stance was not to discard meticulously designed strategies whenever road maintenance occurs.
Council policy dictates that low-traffic neighbourhoods may be opened if emergency services make such a request or if a closure threatens to sever a community’s connection to the broader highway system.