RESIDENTS don’t have long to give their views on proposals for the introduction of new bus gates in Oxford.

Two ‘temporary’ new bus gates - or bus-only lanes - are planned by the city and county councils as part of post-lockdown changes to encourage people to take up walking, cycling or riding the bus instead of driving, and would be introduced by the county council, which has already shut Walton Street to traffic at its junction with Worcester Street

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The plan is for them to become operational by next month in Hythe Bridge Street or Worcester Street, between Frideswide Square and Beaumont Street; and on St Cross Road or South Parks Road, between Parks Road and Manor Road. The county council public consultation ends on Sunday.

Oxford Mail:

Jeremy Mogford, owner of the Old Bank Hotel featuring Quod restaurant, Gee’s and the Old Parsonage, said earlier that the proposals for two new bus gates have not been properly thought through.

He said in his latest newsletter: “In my opinion and of many others, the proposal for more ‘bus gate’ traffic restrictions within Oxford will have far reaching and extremely negative repercussions for the economic viability of our city centre.

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"You must not be taken in by the words ‘temporary’ or ‘experimental’.

"Once the bus gates are installed, we all know that the chances of them being removed, after a number of years, will be remote.”