A STRETCH of Oxford’s ring road should be turned into an ‘urban boulevard’ to ensure thousands of people living in the proposed Barton West development do not feel cut off from the rest of the city.

The idea is being put forward by Oxford Civic Society, which maintains Oxford must “learn from the mistakes of the past” if the new extension of the city goes ahead.

Society members say it is crucial that people living in the proposed 900 homes at Barton West should feel part of the city, rather than being isolated from Oxford by speeding traffic on the ring road.

And they believe this can be achieved by simply repeating the layout of Sunderland Avenue in North Oxford, which services as both a desirable residential street and a northern section of the ring road.

Members of the civic society have submitted their idea to Oxford City Council, which last week agreed to seek an investment partner to deliver a major development on council-owned land between Barton and Marston.

The civic society’s new chairman, Peter Thompson, argues that the new development offers the opportunity to create a boulevard in place of the “racetrack” that the ring road becomes as it sweeps towards the Green Road roundabout.

Mr Thompson said urban design consultant Graham Smith had taken the suggestion of an ‘urban boulevard’ a stage further, by superimposing the Sunderland Avenue layout on the proposed development site and the A40.

“It actually fits remarkably well,” said Mr Thompson. “We think that Sunderland Avenue provides a really interesting case study. Although the traffic flows are heavy, there is none of the sense of the separation of the community which occurs as soon as one moves east on to Elsfield Way.”

He feared that simply building a pedestrian/cycle bridge over the ring road to connect Barton West with Headington and Northway, the option now being looked at, would fail to link the various communities together properly.

Mr Thompson said the society’s proposal might be advanced by news that Ruskin College is ready to offer green land on the other side of the A40 for the Barton West development.

Last week, the principal of Ruskin College, Prof Audrey Mullender, said Ruskin Fields, at the bottom of the college’s Old Headington campus, could be a key location to allow links between the new development and Northway, with the possibility of extra housing.

Mr Thompson said: “It is interesting that Ruskin have now suggested that they may release land for development. It seems possible that an integrated design for development of both sides of the A40, comprising housing, recreation areas and social and educational facilities, together with routes for pedestrians and cyclists, would not be objectionable. This might contribute to the creation of the boulevard, we suggest.”

Mr Smith, a member of the civic society, who formerly taught urban design at Oxford Brookes University, said: “I have always felt that it was outrageous and terrible that Barton is separate from Oxford through being on the other side of the ring road.

“In this country we have treated routes through urban areas as more important than the urban areas themselves.”

He said even if the boulevard approach led to traffic speeds being reduced to 30 or 40mph, a better traffic flow would mean there would be little difference to ring road journey times.