John Paine, secretary of the National Pensioners Convention in Oxfordshire, has expressed concern about how LTNs are holding up traffic at The Plain roundabout in east Oxford, and on other roads.

Many voices are heard in the debate over LTNs in Oxford.

Our current traffic congestion follows the pattern in East London, which resulted after LTNs were initially installed in Walthamstow and are now widespread.

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It was good to see the Oxfordshire County Council spokesperson state that its “consultation was intended to understand how people felt about the proposals…”(Oxford Mail, February 24 2023).

The National Pensioners Convention fully co-operated In the OCC consultations and clearly indicated how older people would be negatively affected by the LTN proposals.

We all want less pollution and traffic congestion. However, funnelling more traffic onto fewer roads has led directly to buses sitting in queues from Marston Road, Headington, Cowley Road.

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The Plain roundabout is a key pinch point and cannot handle this extra traffic as alternative routes were stopped up.

There are other ways to create LTN’s without blocking streets off. Extra mileage and congestion add to the costs of businesses like home care, shopping deliveries, supporting older people.

The Oxford business community may wish to heck out Ghent in Belgium. A very similar scheme to the Oxford plan, with LTNs and ‘bus gates’ was introduced in 2017. In 2020 an academic study, by Transport & Mobility Leuven, recorded an 18% drop in central business activity two years after the scheme started.

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The National Pensioners Convention seeks real and safe improvement measures for older pedestrians, bus users, and rail passengers. Perhaps disrupting movement of people and goods on Oxford’s roads needs more care and thought?

 John Paine

 Secretary, National Pensioners Convention, Oxfordshire