STOP PRESS Old Road (eastern) road works delayed till Wednesday

Here is the latest on next week’s roadworks and temporary diversions

Temporary Road Closure Notification

Oxfordshire County Council is due to carry out carriageway and footway works at the following location:

Old Road – from Windmill Road/The Slade junction to York Road junction

These works form part of the council’s New Headington Transport Improvements scheme that will provide infrastructure to improve conditions for cycle and pedestrian road users, thereby encouraging people to walk and cycle and helping to reduce the number of car journeys. 

The closure is scheduled to commence on Wednesday 12 October 2011 and be in place for 4 weeks or when the work is completed which ever is the earlier. 

In order to carry out the works safely and efficiently, it is necessary for the road to be closed from house no. 90 to house no. 112a, Old Road.

The closure will be in operation on a full-time basis while the works are being carried out and diversion routes will be signed.

Please click on link below for map

S-000248-IFC-100_005-rev1 06-10-11[1]

Temporary parking restrictions in York Road

Following on from Mike’s earlier comments, we asked officers to make sure there’s enough turning space into York Road from Old Road for diverted buses and traffic. We have now had a response.

 Although there is quite a length of parking restriction in York Road near Old Road, we have requested suspension of a length of parking bay to ease movements on this route.

We’re also seeking clarification re the junction of Margaret Rd and Windmill Rd

Old Road works and bus route change

There was traffic chaos in Headington yesterday as motorists tried to grapple with the road works in the Old Road area. The level of consultation and information-giving to residents and road users appears to have been inadequate and we have complained about this on your behalf

Here is our latest information from the County officer

It is our intention to close the eastern section of Old
Road as part of the overall traffic management plan allowing the system to operate under 3-way control (and a pedestrian phase) to ease congestion in the area and specifically at the junction.  This does mean that traffic, including the number 10 bus will be diverted onto adjacent routes; to the north, the diversion route is via Margaret Road and York Road, and to the south, via Titup Hall Drive and Wood Farm Road.
Currently the closure of this section of Old Road is planned for Monday next week and will continue for approx 3 weeks whilst the works are completed and new permanent traffic signals are commissioned.

There is going to be a meeting today (Tuesday) to confirm that the changes above will definitely go ahead and to review whether suitable alternative routes will work. There is a lot of concern about the safety of Wood Farm school children during this period as the traffic volume near the school will be high

We shall update you as we get more information.

Works at Old Road and the Slade

David and I are fielding calls and emails from unhappy residents who feel they have not been fully informed about the works affecting Old Road  and Highfield.

We have asked for letters to be sent to all residents at Latimer Grange and not just those living in one block

We have also asked the County officers to publish more details on their web page once they have final confirmation from contractors about the phasing and timetabling of the work. Any update when forthcoming will be displayed here.

Safety first: London Road bus gate

You will remember that we have been calling for the County Council to make the junction of Osler Road and London Road safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Following comments made by residents at a ward focus meeting, our colleague and county councillor Altaf Khan asked the county officer to conduct a further inspection.

County officers have responded that they want to highlight this risk without encouraging people to cross there.  They believe that the most practical way of achieving this is to apply white direction arrows on the road surface to emphasise the fact that there is two-way traffic beyond the bus lane.  These are commonly used symbols that people are familiar with and, although primarily there to guide drivers, they feel that the meaning should be clear to pedestrians too.
 
We are continuing to press for eye level signs to alert pedestrians to the need to look right when crossing from the central platform, but we welcome the implementation of  the directional arrows to see if they work. We’d welcome your comments on this!

Osler Road public meeting

The public meeting for Osler Road residents was well attended and a number of agencies have taken away actions to try to address issues including:

  • traffic congestion
  • parking issues and lack of enforcement
  • damage to roads
  • near misses and accidents
  • specification of buses
  • need for a transport strategy for Headington

We are circulating the list of actions to all residents in Osler Road and will convene another meeting in three months time to review progress. We are grateful to Stagecoach, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, the JR and Thames Valley Police for assisting us in trying to resolve local issues.

We are also delighted that Osler Road residents are setting up a new Residents’ Group and will helping to facilitate this

If you would like a copy of notes taken at this meeting please contact us

Decision time on Highfield Traffic Scheme

Last week’s Transport Planning Decisions meeting at County Hall was re-scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday 31 March, sadly at a  time when some key players cannot attend.

The funding allocated to the current Highfield Traffic scheme proposals is much less than has been discussed with Highfield Residents Association in the recent past. Residents are very concerned that the new proposals are ‘watered down’ and do not address the fundamental need for traffic speed reduction in residential streets

The proposal for an extra zebra crossing across Old Road near the junction with Stapleton Road has produced little in the way of positive resident feedback during the consultation, and we believe that a case can be made that the money earmarked for it would be better spent on putting in pinch points to reduce speeding traffic in Lime Walk and to introduce staggered parking which would effectively slow down traffic in neighbouring streets

Ruth and David are unable to attend the TD meeting at such short notice but have tabled a paper for consideration by the Cabinet Member for Transport.

We know that Windmill Road residents and Osler Road residents experience severe problems in terms of traffic congestion, volume, and speed. We are currently organising a public meeting for Osler Road residents in April with representatives from bus companies, the NHS trust and the county to establish how these issues can be addressed

Consultations affecting our ward

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it tricky to keep up with all the consultations that are happening at the moment, especially as many are online and can be easily overlooked!

A pre-application briefing has been sent to residents groups by the University of Oxford relating to a prospective redevelopment of land at their Old Road Campus. A meeting will be held on 20/1/11 by the University with residents’ group reps. There is no application submitted to date, but if you want more details please contact your local residents’ group or get in touch with David or me

The City Council has a number of consultations happening right now. These include:

  1. Parks and open spaces (ends 31 Dec)
  2. Housing strategy (ends 17 Jan)
  3. The budget 2011-2015 (ends 31 Dec)
  4. Implementation of dog control orders (ends 31Jan)

These can all be accessed via the City Council’s consultation page here.

Then there are the County’s consultations!

  1. Draft Local Transport Plan (ends 9 Jan)
  2. Oxford, Headington: Highfield and Old Road Transport Improvements (ends 12 Jan)
  3. County’s 2011/12 budget proposals (ends 10 Jan)

There will be an open meeting for Highfield residents to discuss the revised Highfield scheme on 6 JanuaryThe consultation on whether funding should be discontinued by the County Council for Bury Knowle Library will be held between March and May 2011.

We have called in the decision on increased car parking charges in the Headington District Centre (by double in one case!)  for further scrutiny on 10 January. The paper showing these prospective increases can be accessed here – please click on the link from item 8 to view it. If you have any comments on this document please email either David or me as soon as possible

Highfield Traffic proposals on hold

We have just heard this lunchtime that the county council has put the Highfield Traffic Management Scheme proposals on hold, and that the County officer responsible for the scheme has given apologies for this evening’s area committee meeting

The responses from local councillors on the current scheme will still be sent to the County’s transport planning officer for consideration in the drafting of the report, and the responses from residents will still be collated, analysed and made public at some unspecified point in the future

More importantly there is an implication that the money for this proposed scheme may be spent elsewhere in Headington rather than in the Highfield (and New H) area, so long as it helps reduce through traffic in and around developer sites at the NOC and the Brambles, Latimer Road. This will be decided in line with the capital spending review. It would be possible, for example, for the County to decide that this money should be used as part of the Park and Ride expansion at Thornhill to run public transport to and from hospitals in Headington thus reducing through traffic by drivers through Headington residential streets. Please note: this is only one alternative option

The discussion of options arising from the Highfield Traffic Management Scheme consultation at the Cabinet Member for Transport’s meeting in September has been pulled from that agenda

Highfield traffic proposals

As Vice Chair of the North East Area Committee I have asked for Joy White (the author of these proposals) to come along and update us on the response to the consultation and what the likely options may be. That meeting is happening on Tuesday 20 July at New Marston Primary School, Copse Lane at 6 pm. You are very welcome to come along and hear the latest news on this! I shall ensure there will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions and give comments.