AN OXFORD cycle delivery company has said it is embracing the hugely controversial closure of Walton Street because it is making riders' lives easier.
Pedal & Post, which is based on the Osney Mead industrial estate, said the closure of the route to motor vehicles last year has been a boost to business.
The firm, which delivers 12,000 items a year to the area, is even now urging council officials to customise the barrier to help its cyclists get in and out.
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However it comes as restaurants and shops fighting the closure prepare to launch a new Jericho Traders Association this Sunday to boost their cause.
County council highways managers decided last year to keep the street shut following roadworks and are now consulting on its permanent closure.
There is a barrier at the junction with Worcester Street and Beaumont Street.
Bosses at Pedal & Post say if the gap, used by cyclists at the barrier, is slightly wider, bigger courier bikes could get through.
In an email to county councillor Susanna Pressel, Chris Benton, director of the company, said: “Pedal & Post and myself strongly support the road closure remaining on Walton Street.”
Chris Browne, a delivery rider for Pedal & Post.
In the official response to consultation the firm wrote: “The road closure has supported our local business and our ability to serve the businesses and residents in this area.
“Previously our cargo bikes suffered delays due to gridlocked congestion by cars dominating the road space and we avoided the area at all costs as our team are paid by the hour on the living wage – every minute counts.
“Due to parked cars there is no way to filter and it was extremely dangerous.
“The traffic lights also held us up as they weren’t synced up very well at all with long wait times.
“Now Walton Street is used as our main route from north Oxford to the train station, carrying cancer patient and IVF pathology samples twice a day, and the team use Common Ground as a pit stop to get coffee/use the loo and support businesses in this area as its more accessible to cargo bikes now and we can deliver medication and prescriptions much easier to residents on this street.”
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The firm urged the council to allow a 1.2m width of space at the barrier so its large eTrike could access this area easily.
It added: “If this is possible we can open up more employment opportunities and you will see a much larger reduction in vans as our eTrikes are capable of replacing and delivering much larger items and we can also look at launching a rickshaw/pedicab taxi service in the area, providing more green jobs in Oxford.”
The company told Ms Pressel that it is investing a further £60,000 in new equipment and cargo bikes for various contracts, including two with the NHS, moving chemotherapy medication and improving patient care at the Churchill and John Radcliffe Hospital sites.
Mr Benton added: “We’re securing green sustainable jobs, employing and paying the living wage and boosting Oxford’s economy.
“Besides being a small local business that this (road) closure supports, cycling provides many positive externalities everyone in our communities can enjoy, whether they use our delivery services or not.”
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The county council wants consultation responses to be submitted before May 29 before it makes a final decision in May 2021.
Don’t Choke Jericho! has called for the road closure to be maintained while Jericho Connections is calling for the closure to end.
Businesses in association with Jericho Connections have released the findings of a survey showing their trade has been harmed by the closure.
The majority - 84 per cent - of businesses strongly disagreed with the closure of Walton Street to through traffic, according to the group, with 89 per cent of respondents stating that their business had been negatively impacted by the closure.
Jericho Connections staged a demonstration at the barrier on March 1.
This Sunday, the new Jericho Traders Association will be launched at 1.30pm outside the empty shop next to Cowboy Mod.
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An email to businesses said: “Since the road closure at the southern end of Walton Street in July 2019 many of us have become anxious about its impact and the fact that we have been overlooked by the council, and as a result there has been increased contact between business owners in Jericho.
“The Jericho Traders Association was formed last week to take this further and connect us all so that we can support one another and come together as a group.”
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Ms Pressel said: “Pedal & Post is based in the Botley Road area but serves the whole city.
“Firms like this are doing a great job in helping us all to reduce congestion and pollution. I hope that more and more places will start to use such firms as good ways of organising deliveries.”
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