Planters are to be removed from Witney High Street and temporary buildouts installed to make crossing the junction safer for pedestrians.

Minor roadworks are being carried out by Oxfordshire County Council's contractors today (November 13) on the High Street at the Welch Way junction, and Market Square at the Corn Street junction.

The county council works are separate from the Government-funded Witney High Street and Market Square enhancement project which is currently being designed around the feedback from the public engagement exercises.

In 2021 Oxfordshire County Council decided the traffic restriction on Witney High Street and Market Square should become permanent.

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The county council said the improvements "aim to complement the town’s history and character but would also help to improve the look and feel of Witney for visitors and for those arriving by walking, cycling or public transport".

Oxford Mail: Witney High Street

The project is being funded with a £1.98million grant from the government’s active travel fund.

Planners will develop a draft design that is both based on people’s feedback and "is within the budget and requirements of the funding" and a formal consultation on the draft design will take place during spring 2024, said the council.

That feedback will then be reviewed and used to make any necessary amendments to the draft design in summer 2024, before construction begins in the autumn.

In the county council’s consultation on permanently closing Witney High Street, a majority of respondents opposed the plans, and 36 out of 37 local traders objected in a separate informal consultation. 

Witney Conservatives and MP Robert Courts said the high street had been left ‘in limbo’ when "no clear plan or direction" had been forthcoming more than two years after the introduction of measures and they called for a  fresh public consultation on lifting the ban.