A LONG-ESTABLISHED Jericho restaurant has criticised the closure of Walton Street to traffic and claims it is damaging trade.

The route was closed last year for resurfacing and the county council then decided to keep it closed on a trial basis and is consulting the public on the proposal.

Walton Street is now closed off at the junction with Worcester Street and Beaumont Street and could remain shut for up to 18 months on a trial basis.

The issue has proved very divisive, with Jericho Connections group wanting the road reopened while Don’t Choke Jericho! says keep it shut.

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Now Italian eatery Branca has come forward to say the closure is damaging trade in the street.

Jericho Connections has issued an email to all Walton Street traders asking them to fill in a business survey which will be part of a report handed to the council.

The letter said: “Jericho Connections is doing a survey of the 45 businesses with a shopfront in Jericho.”

Oxford Mail:

“It added: “So far almost almost all of the businesses are very strongly against the road closure as it’s suppressing trade and causing a decrease in footfall/turnover.

“Some shops are experiencing a drop in turnover of over 20 per cent year on year as a direct result of the closure.”

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The letter added that ‘data’ from traders’ responses would be passed to the council for a report it is to compile.

The Jericho Cafe, Giggling Squid and The Jericho Tavern were unavailable for comment.

Community organiser John Mair has published a newsletter suggesting that cafe culture is likely to benefit from the road closure.

He wrote: “With much more pedestrian traffic, there will be more reasons to trade out to the street, especially for food outlets.”

Oxford Mail:

Jericho Connections has called for the county council to reopen the street while ‘baseline data’ is collected prior to a formal consultation but members of Don’t Choke Jericho! which is happy with the closure say data is already available so there is no need to reopen the street.

Jamie Hartzell, a spokesman for Don’t Choke Jericho! said: “Jericho Connections are calling this a survey of traders but it sounds more like a campaign to me and the information in the letter is totally anecdotal.

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“I have chatted to lots of traders and broadly speaking there is no or minimal impact on trade but there is inconvenience for delivery drivers or for people going to work.

“Retail is not having the most wonderful time at the moment so you probably were going to see a drop year on year.

Oxford Mail:

“I presented our petition to cabinet two weeks ago.”

Mr Hartzell said there were now county council ‘traffic counters’ everywhere following the road closure.

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The Don’t Choke Jericho! group says the closure of Walton Street is in line with the aspirations of the councils’ Connecting Oxford scheme, which is proposing a series of congestion-busting measures including five new bus-only lanes known as bus gates, which could be in place by 2022.

One of the new bus gates would be in Worcester Street.