CARS will be banished from a road in Headington, Oxford, for a day this weekend as residents reclaim the streets for people.

The Highfield Residents' Association has been given permission to close-off All Saints Road between 11am and 11pm tomorrow.

It is part of the Oxford City Council initiative, Streets for People Day, and is one of a number of events taking place across the city.

Patrick Coulter, chairman of the Highfield Residents' Association, is hoping people will come out and enjoy the car free streets for the day.

Mr Coulter said: "The idea behind the day is to get the local community to understand how the streets are a valuable asset and can be used in this way.

"We want people to see what the streets can be like when you take the cars away.

"We've closed the road off on a number of occasions before, but this is the biggest event of this kind that we have organised so far."

The day will kick off with a street cafe at 11am, with coffee and croissants on sale. The day will also be encouraging residents to think green and get on their bikes.

Simon Hunt, who is part of the Highfield Residents' Association's traffic group, said: "We will have a bike doctor down on the day who will be offering free bike checks during the afternoon.

"There will also be a couple of qualified cycle trainers who will be teaching children in small groups how to cycle on the roads safely."

Dr Hunt also said that if previous events were anything to go by, the day was guaranteed to be a success.

He said: "The last time we had a similar sort of event we had around 250 people turn out, and considering there are only 400 households in our area that is pretty impressive."

Oxford Brookes University town planning lecturer Graham Smith will also be attending the event . He will be speaking about the idea of Streets for People and the way Scandinavian countries use their roads.

Weather permitting, in the evening there will be an outdoor "drive in cinema without the cars" with the screening of the classic comedy Some Like It Hot.

Mr Coulter said: "We had a poll of local residents and this was the popular choice.

"If the weather is good then we will show it outside, so people should wrap up warm.

"But if we get rain then we will be able to show it in the nearby All Saints Church in Lime Walk. We hope everyone comes down and has a lot of fun."

All Saints Road will be closed west of the junction with Lime Walk, so vehicles travelling along Bickerton Road, Stapleton Road and Latimer Road between 11am and 11pm will be affected by the closure.

  • Other city roads will be closed to cars on Saturday as part of the Streets for People Day.

Broad Street will be closed, with a jive dance group and Morris Dancers providing entertainment from 11am.

Residents of North Parade Avenue, in North Oxford, will be holding a barbecue accompanied by African music and traditional dancing. This will also be starting at 11am.

In Wolvercote, residents will be setting up toll booths at the three entrances to the village and charging motorists a voluntary £1 to drive through.

All the money raised will be used to highlight their effort to become a low carbon community.

Free travel will also be granted to under 16s across Oxfordshire on Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach Oxford and Thames Travel vehicles.