A TEMPORARY replacement car park for Oxford’s Westgate multi-storey will provide less than half the number of spaces at present, it has been announced.

The two-storey facility being built on Oxpens car park will have 420 spaces when it opens in January.

That is less than half the 900 at Westgate, set to be demolished to make way for a major expansion of the adjacent Westgate shopping centre.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said the replacement would struggle to cope at peak times.

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Mr Price said: “The evidence we have shows that for most of the day the Westgate car park is a little over half full, so on most normal days there won’t be any problems.

“For the Christmas rush period from next year though, it won’t be fully adequate and there will be a need for people to take the bus or maybe cycle.

“It’s not going to fully replace the Westgate but we also have a flat area in Osney Lane and space in the park-and-rides and we will be encouraging people to use them more.”

Work on the temporary car park in Oxpens began in August and the first storey has gone up.

Council spokesman Chofamba Sithole, said: “The project is progressing well and we expect the car park to open on January 5/6 before the Westgate car park closes.”

A decision on the planning application for the £400m redevelopment of the Westgate Centre, which the city council is a partner in, is expected by the end of the year. Work could start early next year.

It includes 70 new shops including a flagship John Lewis department store, a cinema, cafes and restaurants.

Giles Ingram, chief executive of Experience Oxfordshire, said: “In our conversations with businesses there is a general undercurrent of concern at the Westgate redevelopment, in terms of visits and access.

“There is a sense that a lot of people may be put off coming to Oxford because it’s just too difficult and that it could be a difficult trading period.

“I think there will be the parking capacity but it’ll be a case of getting people to change the way they travel and use the park-and-ride. There needs to be clear communication.”

Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce vice-president Bob Bradley said the reduction of overall car park spaces would make it harder to use a car around Oxford but that access was the real problem. He said: “The reduction in spaces in the Westgate car park pales into insignificance in light of the ability to get in to the centre.

“This is entirely consistent with the long-term policies of the council to make it difficult to use a car to get around Oxford.

“I don’t fundamentally have a problem with that policy – as long as we had a decent public transport system to compensate. We don’t.

“We can’t even get to the park-and-rides because of the traffic jams.

“We need a coordinated and integrated transport policy with buses linked with trains.”


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