Why six new bus gates will be a mistake for Oxford says top hotelier

I first arrived in Oxford in 1975 to open Browns Restaurant in the Woodstock Road. For the next five years I lived right in the centre of the city.

Ever since, I have been very closely involved in all things Oxford, having opened a number of businesses.

I have experienced and seen the evolution of Oxford over the last 45 years and now I am chairman of OHSA (Oxford High Street Association), ROX (Backing Oxford Business) and a founder member of the newly formed OBAG (Oxford Business Action Group), which represents a much wider group of city businesses, professional organisations, and residents. I have and always will care deeply for our city and only want the best for Oxford.

Read again: New bus gates will be like roadblocks

During my first years, back in the 1970s and 1980s, I witnessed a very different city to the one we all know today.

At that time Oxford was much more akin to Bath, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh. What did these five historic cities have in common?

They all had thriving, lively, commercially viable centres, which combined a diverse mixture of shops, hospitality, offices and hotels. Interesting independent operators and national brands were located amongst historic streets, listed buildings, museums, universities, colleges and other educational facilities.

Despite our tricky economic conditions and the effects of the pandemic, Bath, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh have all retained their vibrant, healthy economies with a well-balanced retail and residential mix.

Oxford is no longer in that group. Misguided council policies have ensured that it has seriously fallen behind. You are now witnessing a disproportionate number of empty shops, a sad, uninspiring Covered Market and a continuing exodus of business and shops.

The perception of the outside world is that our city is not welcoming, difficult to access and maybe one should go elsewhere to shop and visit.

My view is that, during my 45 years in Oxford, the two councils have presided over two, stand out, catastrophic mistakes and they appear determined to make a third.

Read more: Traffic filters will divide city into six neighbourhoods

The first huge mistake was their mishandling of the deregulation of the bus companies.

When this was first mooted and introduced, Oxford City Council missed an amazing opportunity to restructure the way that public transport worked in Oxford.

The second massive error was pushing for the development of the Westgate shopping centre which has led to the consequential devastation of the established retail sector located in the original city centre.

The third catastrophic mistake will be if the city and county council’s current proposal to install six traffic filters goes ahead.

Mistake no 1: Deregulation of Bus Companies and the missed opportunity.

Prior to 1986, The Oxford Bus Company more of less operated all the buses within the city and immediately beyond.

After this date, deregulation saw an explosion of bus companies operating within and out of the city.

At that time, the historical central location of Gloucester Green bus station/depot ensured that the vast majority of the buses either had to or wanted to make their way to that particular destination.

Access to that location was limited to a handful of routes. Deregulation caused the High (High Street), to take the biggest hit with a huge increase in number of buses passing up and down every day.

The new bus companies had much larger fleets and were in competition with each other.

As time went on, the bigger players demanded better and unfettered access to Gloucester Green and other areas within the city centre, eventually persuading the city council to install a bus gate on the High in 1999.

This bus gate has remained in place to this day without review or discussion on hours or concessions.

As a consequence of this first bus gate installation, quite a number of well established, successful independent shops and offices businesses were forced to close. Unfortunately, the bus companies have been dictating council policy ever since.

The opportunity missed? A visionary council would have ensured that a new main bus hub was built and located nearer the railway station and formed a ‘joined up’ public transport plan for Oxford and beyond. It would have closed down Gloucester Green.

Back in 2003, the Oxford Civic Society asked me to write a chapter for their ‘Visions of Oxford’ publication.

My updated vision would be to have a fleet of electric single deck buses of different sizes, coloured in an Oxford blue livery, on a recognised circuit, travelling around agreed parts of the city.

They would be hop on/hop off with a nominal charge for daily use or season tickets. Other regular buses would not be permitted to enter this central zone.

This a common solution for many historic cities throughout Europe, an example being Sienna in Italy.

The Oxford Collection would pledge sponsorship of at least one or two of these vehicles and I’m sure there would be many other voluntary sponsorships from BMW, the richer colleges, to successful tech companies and alumni, and who knows, even the City Council itself. There is an inexpensive solution to easy travel within the city.

Mistake no 2: The Westgate shopping centre

The original smaller, manageable Westgate opened in 1972 and was superseded by the giant development we know today, completed in 2017.

In my opinion, the Westgate Centre has been an unmitigated disaster for Oxford.

We are currently witnessing the catastrophic effect it has had on the on the original, traditional shopping streets in the historic centre of Oxford.

Virtually all the branded shops have relocated to the new Westgate, leaving Cornmarket, Queen Street, the Clarendon Centre, the Covered Market, Broad Street, St Alddate’s, the High Street, along with many of the smaller connecting streets virtually abandoned and a shadow of their former selves, bereft of quality shopping with many units empty.

The huge number of empty shops in Oxford is not a result of any economic downturn or the pandemic, I place the decline fairly and squarely at the door of the Westgate.

What would we do in 2022 with all that council owned land on the west side of the city which became the Westgate? I suggest, build up to 2,000 affordable, attractive homes/flats.

Mistake no 3: Six traffic filters (bus gates)

The current proposal to install six bus gates is just plain wrong.

I predict that their long term, detrimental effect on the economic vibrancy, the feel of the city, will be viewed as a monumental act of self-harm by generations to come. If they are allowed to go ahead, even as an experiment, shops and commerce will continue to close, compounding the already sorry state of the retail sector.

As far as congestion is concerned, I profoundly disagree with the council’s view that Oxford suffers from chronic congestion throughout.

Having spent the last 45 years running businesses, travelling around the city and living in the centre, I am qualified to know whether there is congestion or not.

Many of us know where the hot spots are and I suggest most of them could be inexpensively solved individually with adjusted road layout and better traffic light timing.

There have always been explainable congestion peaks related to school runs (both state and private), arrivals and departures at the beginning and end of university terms, along with the bigger graduation days and ceremonies. Other congestion is mostly caused by building/road works and the unexpected, such as occasional flooding, the occurrence of ‘fat burgers’ in the sewage system, or, for instance, a bus getting stuck under a bridge.

Combine the aggressive, seven day and night, car parking enforcement and the prospect of road closures, you are seeing a council imposed tourniquet, squeezing  the lifeblood out of our city, ever tightening a noose around the necessary and essential flow of the wide variety of traffic currently linking all areas of the city.

The closure of the vital connecting arterial roads within the city will effectively divide our city into six separate zones.

The promise of any concessions has to be viewed with scepticism. Promised concessions can be changed on a whim.

The city and county councils have to recognise that cars (electric) will always be an important and integral part of the way of life for the vast majority of the population. The future has to be electric or hydrogen.

This fact should be accepted by our travel planners and sensibly accommodated (time wise) within their overall traffic/travel plans, alongside the important acceptance of the need for efficient public transport.

In summary

My watchword in business and in life has always to be practical, sensible and balanced.

I have always been taught not to criticise without offering an alternative solution and in this case there is another much less drastic solution to our city centre traffic without committing a gross act of self-harm.

The commercial wellbeing of a city depends on the business rates generated by successful businesses and professions, council tax generated by residents, along with general taxes both commercial and personal.

Taxes paid by those in work and successful businesses make the world go round and should allow a city such as Oxford to thrive.

I sincerely believe that the imposition of these bus gates (traffic filters or road restrictions) will adversely affect our own business and many other businesses and the ability to maintain the current level of business rates and other taxes.

Oxford has constantly missed out on a bold visionary plan to take us forward and give Oxford a solution it deserves.

It’s not too late to change direction. Bus gates are the wrong policy, they will only divide the city more and irreparably damage its commercial success.

They will damage ‘Brand Oxford’ by continuing to drive visitors, shoppers and business elsewhere. I am asking the city and county councils to go back to the drawing board, come up with a long-term plan and not make this third mistake.

Oxford will survive quite happily if you leave things as they are for the moment.

All the councils need to do is make some adjustments and individual tweaking, while coming up with a bold new future plan that allows our city to prosper and thrive.

An interesting and worrying fact relating to the proposed travel plan is that it’s become obvious that an estimated £40m government grant is available (deadline: December 2022) for the purchase of new electric buses, and apparently this grant is dependent on the councils getting their current travel plan approved.

Is this why there is undue haste with the introduction of their long-winded, ‘difficult to fill in’ consultation questions and their vague wording?

It is only fair that we should have the ability to give a straight yes or no answer to a simple question: Do you agree with the installation of these six bus gates? Yes or no?

Remember that the consultation some two and a half years ago, showed that a majority of respondents rejected the idea. It wasn’t the result the councils wanted so what do they do? Hold another consultation with different wording.

With the benefit of hindsight, some past major decisions have been clearly proved wrong.

Three wrongs don’t make a right, so please say no to these divisive, ill-thought out and damaging traffic filters (bus gates).

If they don’t happen, Oxford will continue as we find it today, perfectly happily. It will not collapse.

Ask your local politicians to come up with a proper vision for the future which is inclusive of walkers, cyclists, those using public transport, motorists and all the other wide ranging range of road users.

With the right policies and decisions, Oxford can and will be the greatest city in the world.

Read more from this author

This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF