Cycle campaigners were asked to “help” Oxfordshire County Council in its programme of radical traffic restrictions, by “countering some of the negative stuff” that came with “changing things around”.
Speaking at Cyclox’s Vision Zero conference on Wednesday night, the county council’s active travel champion Dan Levy noted the authority got “lots of negative publicity with things like LTNs” and bus gates.
He asked those at the meeting: “Stand up for us when we do take changes that we all think and I think are fairly obvious, but which gets lots and lots of negative publicity.”
The councillor, who does not live in Oxford, and represents Eynsham on the county council, added: “Please do help us by countering some of the negative stuff that goes with us changing things around.”
He said the purpose of initiatives like the LTNs was not to “inconvenience people”.
He added: “It should be better once in place, because Oxford is absolutely appalling at the moment without those attempts to reduce the amount of traffic.”
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The reason the council was ‘doing it’, he added, was to make it easier for people to take ‘active travel’ options such as cycling and walking, making it safer and more convenient to do so.
His comments follow criticism of the Low Traffic Neighbourhood barrier restrictions which block ordinary traffic from using streets connecting the Iffley and Cowley Road.
Naz Choudhury, who ran Temple Lounge in Temple Street, said the LTNs were the main reason for its closure.
In November, restaurateur Clinton Pugh, father of film star Florence Pugh, put up a giant poster to criticise the LTNs.
Mr Pugh, who owns Café Coco, Kazbar and Café Tarifa in Cowley Road, unveiled the anti-LTN billboard on the side of Café Coco. Talking to the Daily Mail, he said: “You’d think the council would come to see people like me and ask what impact the LTNs might have on us. But there was no business assessment.
“Many of the people who came here used to be from outside the city but now they’re put off by the traffic jams.
“My takings are down and I’m only opening Cafe Coco at weekends. Lots of businesses are struggling.”
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The co-owner of nearby Arbequina tapas bar, Ben Bateman, echoed Mr Pugh’s views, saying his business had lost a quarter of its takings since the introduction of the LTNs.
He told the Daily Mail: “You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Oxford who wouldn’t be up for a cleaner, greener way to live, but it’s the execution of it that feels clumsy and inconsiderate.
"It has been heavy-handed. The traffic is so horrendous now that it takes people hours to travel up and down, and when we first open in the evening it’s pretty dead."
His business partner Ben Whyles told the newspaper: “It becomes a struggle and you start to question why you’re doing it.
"You feel like you’re on your own and no one really listens.”
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
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