WE are proud, today, to see city councillor Ed Turner standing up for common sense in Oxford.

The proposal by our county council (which does a lot of good work) to institute Controlled Parking Zones in every part of Oxford, forcing all residents who want to park on their own street to fork out £65 for a permit – is overkill.

It is, as one resident neatly put it, ‘using a sledgehammer to crack a nut’.

Such schemes already cover vast swathes of other cites, such as Brighton, but then Oxford has never been like other cities – nor do we want to be.

The county has launched a consultation on its proposal – but how much publicity will there be?

We have done our best to publicise it but (and it pains us to say this) not everyone reads the Oxford Mail, and even those who do don’t read every article.

Furthermore, as one of our readers very rightly said in a recent letter to the paper – what’s the rush?

The county council are consulting on this idea now, but we’re in the middle of battling a pandemic, stuck in lockdown: why not wait a few months until things are back to normal when there could be public meetings about this?

We cannot help but be reminded of when this same council unilaterally decided to test out a 'pilot' closure of Walton Street in the centre of the city, without consulting a single member of public.

That 'temporary' closure of Walton Street started more than a year ago now, and the decision on whether to make it permanent has been kicked down the road.

This situation is different: the council is running a consultation this time, so we urge all residents to have their say.

If you do want a Controlled Parking Zone in your neighbourhood then tell them so, but if you don't then you must speak up, because once this decision is taken, it will not be undone lightly.

A formal decision on Walton Street hasn't even been made yet, and that already feels like a permanent feature of the city.

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