Sir – I went to the recent opening of the Marriotts Walk shopping centre and was mightily impressed with what has been achieved there so far.
Apart from the anchor stores of M&S and Debenhams, a good range of new shops, restaurants plus a five-screen cinema and 140 dwellings, the key attraction is free parking. Witney will now retain its resident shoppers who in the past might have gone to Oxford or Cheltenham to spend their money, but no longer need to when it is on their doorstep.
Witney’s new facilities will attract more people from its rural hinterland and even people from Oxford and its environs who are tired of the problems of accessing their city centre, dare I even whisper it, in a car!
Witney is a town that is keen to attract customers, not discourage them as seems to be the problem in Oxford. The park-and-ride system there is great when there is room to park, a bus actually turns up, when you don’t have much to carry or you don’t have small children.
The Oxford shopping experience seems largely targeted at students and tourists (fast food and bars dominate) and is often an unsatisfactory one.
Against all the PC thinking, central Government policy guidance etc on charging for parking, Witney and West Oxfordshire has free parking. WODC have listened to their voters and delivered what they want — and it seems to be working.
Bicester Village has free parking and must be one of the more successful retail complexes in the South East.
Is there by any chance a connection? I realise larger towns have more pressure on space, but Reading’s Oracle shopping centre has a huge range of shops and ample parking costing £3.60 for three hours — Westgate parking £5.80 for three hours — need I say more. Perhaps it may be time for a rethink in Oxford before it withers, or worse dies, as a shopping centre — or do its residents want it to be just an historic University city and tourist attraction somewhat marred by streets full of largely empty buses!
I have lived and worked in and around Oxford since the early 1980s; I am a car driver and now have a free bus pass. So I have put it all to the test over that time!
Harry St John, North Leigh
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