IN a month's time the people of Oxford should know whether or not the pedestrianisation of their city centre is to go ahead or not.

By then, Government inspector Geoff Brown will decide whether to approve city and county council proposals to close High Street to through traffic and pedestrianise Cornmarket and the west end of Broad Street.

The plans have provoked major argument. In particular, independent shop owners have predicted that trade will wither if shoppers can no longer drive through the city centre.

But their vision of a commercially stagnant city, filled with empty shops and empty buses, is not likely to materialise, if other cities where traffic has made way for pedestrians are anything to go by.

In York, for example, 35 of the central streets are closed to traffic between 11am and 4pm from Monday to Friday, longer on Saturdays and for a little less time on Sundays.

York celebrated ten years of pedestrianisation in September and nearly all of those who opposed it to begin with have been converted.

There were 500 objections to the original plan but four years later - when the hours were extended - the number had fallen to zero.

Nicholas Brown, managing director of Browns department store, said: "When you look back on it we were quite concerned but, by gosh, it's been the best thing we ever did."

Browns had to hire a warehouse outside the city centre for daytime deliveries, but the expense and inconvenience were worth it.

"The retail trade statistics in York have risen year-on-year since we did that and there was recession in the country as a whole during that period. We've got to say now we're rather pro-pedestrianisation," he said. "York was always left a little in the shadow of Leeds but now we're seeing customers from a 25-mile radius coming into York to shop because they like the environment."

John Bann, York's head of transport planning, said: "People had come to realise it wasn't the end of the world. In fact, it was rather a good idea."

Original objectors in York included shopkeepers, disabled groups and local people concerned about where the traffic would go once it was banned from the centre. Their protests died away after pedestrianisation came into effect but there were worries that had to be addressed.

Mr Bann said: "The big issue is people who have a real need for access. We had to deal with disabled people, people who needed access for deliveries and servicing. We had to accommodate all those people."

Members of Oxford's city and county councils have visited York to learn from its experiences and in return have advised on park-and-ride and restriction of cars.

Parking in York, at 60p an hour or £6.50 a day, is less than half that of Oxford since charges here went up.

But Mr Bann added: "Our park-and-ride is more expensive than yours but we looked at Oxford as a good example and decided park-and-ride was a good answer for us."

In comparison to other historic cities, Oxford has been slow to ban traffic from the centre, but its policies have kept the number of cars the same for more than 30 years. It may be hard to believe if you've ever spent 40 minutes contemplating Do It All while stuck in traffic on Botley Road, but Oxford is seen as a shining example of transport management by other cities.

Ray Lane, Gloucester's chief engineer, said: "Oxford is seen as ahead of the game, certainly in terms of park-and-ride.

"A lot of cities aspire to the situation Oxford has arrived at in terms of using parking charging policy to influence long-term parking." Gloucester started pedestrianisation in 1990 when it banned traffic from Eastgate. That was followed by Westgate in 1993 and will be complete in April when cars are banned from Northgate and Southgate.

As in Oxford and York, there was strong local opposition to begin with, but the council worked with the Chamber of Commerce and other groups to address the problems.

Gerald Tween, chairman of Gloucester's Disability Equality Forum, said elderly and disabled people were dismayed by the amount of street furniture - benches, signposts, flower tubs and so on - in Eastgate when it was pedestrianised.

Those difficulties had gone by the time Westgate was closed to traffic but the cobbled street surface remained a problem for wheelchair users. This time round, that has also been sorted out.

"With the new proposals for Southgate and Northgate, that issue has been addressed and we should have smooth pavings. It has been quite successful," he said. What they're proposing THE radical Oxford Transport Strategy would take transport planning into the new Millennium, the inquiry heard.

Adrian Trevelyan Thomas, counsel for both county and city councils, said the strategy "was not arrived at lightly".

He told the inquiry, which ended yesterday: "OTS is entirely consistent with and complimentary to the way forward as now urged by central Government.

"Just as it was in the1970s, yet again Oxford is leading the way in transport planning."

The strategy consists of 90 separate measures including:

Pedestrian-only zones in Cornmarket and Broad Street between 10am and 6pm

Private traffic banned from High Street - though not buses, taxis and cycles

Bus priority routes in St Aldate's, Speedwell Street, Old Greyfriars Street, Castle Street, New Road and George Street

General traffic having to skirt the city centre, using Thames Street - which will become two-way - Oxpens Road, Hollybush Row, Hythe Bridge Street - also to become two way - Beaumont Street, part of Worcester Street and St Giles.

Measures already taken are:

735 new spaces at park-and-ride car parks

New bus lanes in Banbury Road, Woodstock Road and London Road, Headington

Environmentally friendly, low-emission diesel buses

More than 350 new bike parking spaces

18 new pedestrian crossings in Botley Road, West Way, London Road, Woodstock Road, Banbury Road, Cowley Road and Donnington Bridge Road Facts and figures from the inquiry THE public inquiry into the Oxford Transport Strategy will be funded from a Government grant.

Total costs are not yet known but Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council allowed up to £200,000 to pay for the inquiry when they put in their funding bid to the Department of the Environment in 1996.

Costs of the inquiry included fees for barrister Adrian Trevelyn-Thomas QC, who represented the councils, consultants' fees, accommodation and expenses

Thousands of hours of council officers' time were spent on the inquiry, which lasted for 17 days and heard more than 50 witnesses

Copies of witnesses' statements filled three four-drawer filing cabinets

A total of 26,244 photocopies were made

It took two people to carry the box of documents used by council officers giving evidence

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.