Thank you to all those Headington residents who responded to our survey about the next phase of work on the London Road. We have formulated our response to the County Council having taken on board the wide range of comments made and talked to more local people.
One thing which is very clear to us is the level of frustration there has been over the way the roadworks for Phase I have been handled. We have regularly had to deal with issues of blocked drives, traffic lights switched off, unacceptable noise at night — like you, we have lived with this! The next Phase, because it’s in the very centre of Headington, is likely to be all the more disruptive. If the works were managed like this Phase has been, that would be a nightmare for our district centre. So, one of our key messages to the County is that they should stop and learn before they rush ahead.
We have also stressed to them that the roadworks should be part of a larger strategy, co-ordinated between different agencies: what we want to see is nothing less than our district centre on the up, being regenerated. For that to happen, we insist, it must involve local residents and their representatives at every stage.
We have also made comments on specific proposals. The one issue that has caused the most interest in the press has been pedestrian crossings. Our survey results show that the vast majority want to see an extra crossing on London Road — but that many do not want to lose the underpass. There are a significant minority who would prefer not to use the underpass, and we want those people to be able to have a crossing. But there are equally others who would not feel safe using a new crossing. What we have recommended is that there should be a new crossing, next to Osler Road which means that there would be no reason to waste money on losing the facility of the underpass, which some people find so useful. In short, we don’t see it as a case of either / or: it can be win / win!
I have uploaded the full submission so that you can read in detail what we have said on this and on other elements of the scheme. Thanks again to those who filled in our survey.