A PROTEST against traffic calming measures planned for East Oxford is going ahead tomorrow afternoon.

The demonstration, entitled Stop the Road Closures takes aim at plans for new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods which have been proposed for the St Clements, St Mary's and Divinity Road areas of East Oxford that all join onto the Cowley Road.

Posters have been placed in the windows of businesses along Cowley Road who are unhappy with the proposed schemes for fear it will have an impact on their income.

The protest will take place at noon on Saturday, June 19, at Manzil Way, organised by a group called Reconnecting Oxford, which has opposed similar schemes that have been rolled out in Cowley.

LTNs are a means of stopping drivers from taking shortcuts down residential roads by blocking them off at certain points with bollards or planters, creating makeshift cul-de-sacs.

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They are aimed at making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to use these residential streets, while allowing residents to still drive in and out of their own roads, and have proved popular with many in Cowley.

However, others in the area have felt they were not asked or listened to before the schemes were implemented, and now there is growing worry in neighbouring East Oxford that more LTNs could result in long queues of traffic being pushed onto the Cowley Road.

Oxfordshire County Council rolled out the Cowley LTNs with emergency funding from the Government provided last year.

This week, the new coalition leading the county council has said it will not implement any more LTNs without a detailed consultation that takes into account the views of everyone in the community.AL