Key Oxford employers including MINI and Unipart will be told to keep parking to a 'minimum'

Major city firms, including Unipart and BMW, had been critical of how the authority’s initial proposal to make them cut parking spaces if they wanted to grow could have affected them.

The authority remains confident it will be able to cut the number of people driving to work around the city. But planning inspectors have said it must change the way a critical policy is worded.

If major employers, such as the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust, want to expand they will need to submit a travel plan to show they have ‘sought to enhance and promote more sustainable travel to and from the wider site’.

There will also be a ‘presumption’ that they will then keep vehicle parking to ‘the minimum necessary to ensure the successful functioning of the development’.

It could have implications on notorious sites, such as the John Radcliffe Hospital, where parking is often difficult because of congestion.

The initial policy was included in the council’s Local Plan, which is currently being assessed by government planning inspectors.

The council had initially said it wanted major employment sites, including BMW’s Cowley site and the Oxford Science Park, to cut their car parking when they wanted to expand.

Alex Hollingsworth, the council’s cabinet member for planning and sustainable transport, welcomed the inspectors’ comments.

He said: “It’s achieving the same thing through different means and we are grateful to the inspector in achieving this.”

Last year, BMW had labelled the council’s original plan ‘unsound’.

It said: “Employees need to travel between work and home at times determined by production shifts. Any restriction on car parking on the MINI Plant Oxford site is likely to add to the employer’s operating costs as alternative off-site parking might need to be provided.”

It said it was otherwise happy with the council’s plan – as long as it was given special dispensation, along with other city employers where ‘production depends upon shift patterns outside normal working hours’.

The council has said more sustainable transport should be used – in part because 5.6 per cent of deaths are ‘attributable to long-term exposure’ to vehicle fumes.

If a site is redeveloped, the council will soon be able to order ‘no net increase in parking on the site from the previous level’.

The authority will also be able to ‘seek a reduction where there is a good accessibility to a range of facilities’.

About 2,500 people work at the Oxford Science Park, which is owned by Magdalen College, Oxford.

It was scathing in its response to the council about the range of transport options open to people who work at the Littlemore science park.

It said: “Measures are being brought forward to address [workers’ dependence on cars], such as the re-opening of the Cowley Branch Line and a new park and ride.

“These alternatives do not yet exist and as the timescales for delivery are uncertain, they are not considered to be reasonable justification for the council’s proposal to reduce overall car parking at the park.”

It said it was critical that the South Oxford Science Village to the south of Grenoble Road is built to address the city’s ‘housing supply constraint’ and to reduce car use. That land is partly owned by Magdalen College. Oxford City Council and Thames Water also own a share.

Last week, we reported how the planning inspectors had told the authority it would not be able to tell businesses what to pay.

The council had wanted to tell developers working on major projects that it would have to pay its Oxford Living Wage – at least £10.02 an hour. But the inspectors said it had no right to do so.