RADICAL proposals for traffic in Oxford would mean the city centre being surrounded by a 'ring of stone' to keep cars out.

Oxford University Students' Union (OUSU) wants to seal off Oxford's historic centre from all private cars except those with special permits, the public inquiry into the Oxford Transport Strategy heard yesterday.

The students also called urgently for Longwall Street to be closed to cars driving through, for Queen Street to be pedestrianised, and for plans for the railway station junction in Park End Street to be completely rethought.

Ralph Smyth, OUSU transport officer, said the ring would more-or-less follow the line of the old city wall, only parts of which still survive.

"It would be a ring of stone like the ring of steel around the City of London - only permit holders would go through," he added.

"Such a zone closure would protect the most delicate and historic part of the city by having permits, if not now then eventually. Only by limiting traffic in general can we stop it from being pushed from one side to the other. We feel the council has failed to make the hard decisions."

He added that OUSU supported the existing plans to close High Street to through traffic, apart from buses and taxis, and to pedestrianise the western end of Broad Street but felt the proposals did not go nearly far enough. The inquiry also heard that the OTS proposals might not succeed in in reducing overall traffic levels - as the county and city councils predict they will.

Pat Dendy, chairwoman of the Oxford branch of the Council for the Protection for Rural England, said: "Cars are comfortable. Cars are a mobile sitting room with every entertainment and every comfort - telephones, CDs, tapes.

"Is not the tendency to say 'I would sooner spend two hours in a traffic jam in my car than half-an-hour on public transport'?"

Roger Williams, chief transport planner for Oxfordshire County Council, said he thought a change in the kind of transport people chose to use was possible. One example of this, he suggested, was the way traffic restrictions in Oxford and the development of park-and-ride had kept traffic levels in the city centre the same for more than 25 years.

Mr Williams also disputed claims by Jennifer Linsdell, chairwoman of Oxford Pedestrians' Association, that OTS made no provision for walkers and in some areas, like the railway station junction, would make life more difficult for people on foot.

Martin Young, of South House, Headington, was also due to present his case against some of the key points of OTS yesterday. Mr Young carried out a questionnaire which found that 62 per cent of the 1,100 people who responded thought the pedestrianisation of the city centre was basically a good idea.

But 47 per cent of people agreed with the statement "The Oxford councils (city and county) consistently ignore the interests of private car owners" and 75 per cent agreed "In the city centre buses are more of a problem than cars".

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