QUESTIONS have been raised over whether the decision to install more Low Traffic Neighbourhoods has been pre-determined.

The controversial traffic calming scheme is already underway as an experimental traffic order in parts of Cowley – however, next week it will be announced whether an LTN trial will also be carried out in East Oxford, affecting several the peripheral streets off Cowley Road, St Clements, and Iffley Road.

The statutory decision-maker, Tim Bearder, Cabinet Member of Highway Management at the council, will announce his decision on December 16, following a targeted consultation of key stakeholders, such as businesses and places of worship, who would be affected by the scheme.

The targeted consultation follows a public consultation which in July revealed the majority of residents and businesses did not support the decision to install traffic filters in East Oxford.

Yet now, one week before the decision is likely to be made, Conservative councillors have expressed concerns over whether the decision can be made in ‘good faith’.

The concerns follow a video posted on Twitter by Mr Bearder in October that suggested it was the school run causing traffic in Oxford, not LTNs.

 

Dressed in a high-vis jacket the councillor said: "It's half term week and those '[explicit word removed] LTNs' are ruining the traffic in Oxford. Hang on - there is no traffic in Oxford.

"Hmm, half-term, no traffic in Oxford. Is it really the LTNs? The LTN - we only have one LTN."

Tory councillors have now spoken out and questioned whether this shows that Mr Bearder has already predetermined the decision to go ahead with more LTNs across the city.

Ian Corkin, who represents Ploughley ward and has been a county councillor for several years, said in all his time at County Hall, he cannot remember a scheme that has created so much ‘public anger’.

He said: “The LTNs have been enormously divisive and problematic for residents who are living with them.

“In all my time at county hall, I cannot remember a time like it, either because of the scale of the public unrest about it, or the cavalier way that the administration is going about engaging with them.

“I think we all accept there is a challenge for the transport strategy in the city, but this is simply moving the problem around to other people, and I think the consultation with the public in good faith is absolutely essential.”

Mr Corkin said he was ‘shocked’ when he saw Mr Bearder’s video on Twitter.

He added: “At a time when the council has spent a lot of time and money in consulting the public, the person who will ultimately make the decision on that consultation made it absolutely clear that his mind was made up, that it (the LTNs) was not a problem, and that by extension they were going to happen.”

Councillor Eddie Reeves, who is the leader of the opposition party at the county council, similarly raised concerns over whether the decision will be made in ‘good faith’.

He said: “By trade, I am a lawyer, so I am quite keen that the council does things in a procedural way.

“The statutory decision-maker here is Councillor Bearder, and if the council is going to spend the taxpayer’s money in running one or more public consultations, in ‘good faith’, to ascertain other issues and see what the appetite is in communities for these schemes and by extension make a decision based on the evidence gathered.

“If Councillor Bearder has made his mind up already there are two quite serious issues that flow from that – firstly, why is the council spending public resources on consultations that are not being carried out in good faith, and secondly, if he has made his mind up already, why does he not have the courage of his convictions to push ahead with the schemes that the thinks will be beneficial to the communities in question.”

The councillor’s added that the concerns had also been raised to the monitoring officer over whether the video broke any rules predetermining a decision and whether Mr Bearder’s alleged use of phrases such as the ‘noisy majority’ against LTNs broke similar rules.

In December 2020, Councillor Liam Walker, the previous cabinet member for highways under the old Tory administration, was forced to step down after the council’s monitoring officer had found his conduct on Twitter ‘breached the code of conduct set by the Council’ after writing an anti-cyclist tweet on the social media platform,

Weighing in on the discussion, Mr Walker explained: “I appreciate Oxfordshire County Council are between a rock and a hard place on the issue of tackling congestion and reducing air pollution but they aren’t really taking Oxford residents with them by just imposing LTNs on their communities.

“It’s clear that LTNs are just pushing extra traffic on some already congested main roads and residents in East Oxford have made their views clear in a recent consultation which showed they are not in favour of the schemes.”

Concerning Mr Bearder’s video, he added: “As the decision-maker on LTNs he has to remain neutral in that decision-making process and I know a number of complaints were sent to the county council due to this video.

“It’s no secret that roads are quieter during the school holidays so him making the unusual link to LTNs has left many people confused.

“If the monitoring officer feels he has broken the rules on predetermining a decision, then any decisions on LTNs should be made by the cabinet as a whole rather than the cabinet member for highways.”

Oxfordshire County Council did not provide a comment.

It did confirm, however, that the decision over whether the East Oxford LTN trial will be made on December 16 and the decision meeting on the Cowley LTNs scheduled for 24 February 2022.

Councillor Tim Bearder has been asked for a comment.