Oxford business owners have expressed their frustration at what they see as the county council’s failure to monitor impacts of the ‘reckless’ congestion charge.

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday considered proposals for what to do with the extra cash brought in by the controversial temporary congestion charge scheme.

Initial projections of £3.91m being raised by the charge have been revised to a now expected £4.53m, which will be invested in the council’s transport policy aims.

Monitoring data has been published monthly on traffic volume, bus and car journey times, traffic levels and public transport usage since the charge was introduced last October.

Congestion charge sign on St Cross Street (Image: Ed Nix)

The council claims these preliminary datasets show congestion has been reduced ‘very broadly along the lines of what the modelling predicted’.

But as the county council congratulates itself for a reportedly ‘cleaner, greener’ city and windfall income from the congestion charge, business owners say they feel overlooked.

The promised monitoring data, which would focus on how businesses may have been impacted, like footfall and spend data and surveys speaking to city traders themselves, largely hasn’t been completed.

Speaking on behalf of Oxford Business Action Group, a collection of traders set up in 2022 to ensure they have a voice on the county council’s transport measures, Oxford restaurateur Bernadette Evans said business owners have been ‘completely let down and fobbed off’ by the council.

Restaurateur Bernadette Evans at the launch of Oxford Business Action Group Photo: The Oxford Collection

She said council officers agreed to monitor footfall and spend every month in the six shopping neighbourhoods of Botley Road, Summertown, Temple Cowley, St Clement’s, Cowley Road and Jericho, and to publish a survey in January so locals and business owners could report on their experience of the congestion charge – but these have not taken place.

“It’s nearly six months since the congestion cameras went in and the elaborate promises from the council, but to date no accurate monitoring has materialised,” Ms Evans told the cabinet.

“Bear in mind we’re only around four months off the traffic filters replacing [the temporary congestion charge].

“There’s no polite way to say it, but we’ve been completely let down and fobbed off.

“With all the resources at the council’s disposal it’s been the business owners who have ended up doing the monitoring and asking fellow business owners whether they’re being impacted.”

The county council had engaged external data supplier Huq Industries to monitor footfall and spend data in relation to the temporary congestion charge.

After the first footfall data set from November was provided by Huq and published in December, comparisons with other data sources revealed ‘a number of anomalies’ which ‘could not be explained’.

The data was removed ‘so as not be misleading’ and Huq continues working to correct the cause of the issues.

While it does, the council has decided to ‘pause its use of the Huq data’ but promised to publish it as soon as it was made available and validated.

Meanwhile the council is using MRI Software which monitors pedestrian numbers with physical on-street equipment and can only provide comparative data for one city centre location, in Queen Street.

Queen Street in Oxford (Image: NQ)

February’s monitoring update saw the first of this data published, revealing pedestrian numbers in Queen Street increased by one per cent during the period November 2025 to February 2026 compared to the same period the previous year.

Addressing cabinet, Ms Evans added: “When you know how tough it is for so many of our brilliant business owners, as soon as officers realised the Huq footfall data was wildly inaccurate they should have organised alternative ways – surveys or business forums for example.

“We’re hearing on an almost daily basis from Oxford’s small business owners how badly they’re being impacted by the congestion charge.

“I know it’s not what you want to hear and doesn’t fit the narrative that it’s ‘good for business’ but these are the facts.

“Businesses which would have just about survived the cost-of-living crisis will now close, because of the congestion charge.”

Responding to the business action group representative at the cabinet meeting, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport management, Andrew Gant, said: “We take it fully on the chin that our data did not deliver what we wanted it to do.

Councillor Andrew Gant (Image: Contributed)

“We’ve been asked for the genuine voice of businesses to be factored in – absolutely, that will be done.”

In the absence of council data, Oxford Business Action Group took matters into their own hands, collecting anonymous, anecdotal evidence from business owners in the city.

The owner of a restaurant in St Clement’s said: “It [the congestion charge] even deters existing loyal customers.

St Clements in Oxford (Image: Photo: Oxford Mail)

“We did notice a drop off in business during the LTN introduction, but as soon as the congestion charge kicked in, we have experienced very troubling times.

“In general, I feel like the public, both our loyal customers and visitors from outside, just avoid east Oxford.

“Our restaurant is more of a destination restaurant, and we are seriously thinking of closing it.”

Another business owner of a small retail shop near the city centre told the action group: “We’ve noticed this Easter both Jericho and Summertown sites have been the quietest ever.

“There’s always a lull when the students go away and locals going on holiday, but the traffic issues are stopping people coming in.

“The strength of feeling among businesses is so strong that if they were to read some of the comments that people have said in response to the congestion charge, both in the press and online, they might get half an idea of what it feels like to have your business totally ruined, with zero hope for the future due to an ill thought-out and badly timed scheme which basically just penalises the residents and businesses of Oxford.”

The business action group added that data collected from a Telraam monitor on St Clement’s backed up the business owners’ experiences, reporting an average drop in footfall between November 2025 and March 2026 of 18.1 per cent, year on year.

Oxfordshire County Council said Telraam is a limited data source because it’s very sensitive to light conditions and may only able to provide ‘reliable, comparable data’ during the day, providing a ‘partial picture of trends’.

A spokesperson for the county council said: “The council is currently investigating sources for footfall data.

“Consumer spend data is currently being verified, including making comparisons with other data sources before being published.

“The temporary congestion charge is a short-term measure to reduce traffic while Botley Road remains closed, which is preventing the start of the council’s traffic filter trial.

“The scheme is designed to improve bus services and make it easier for those with permits, including carers, traders and blue badge holders, to travel by car into and around Oxford.

“Income forecasting for the scheme was an estimate based on modelling.”