PLANS to close Oxford's High Street to through traffic will create transport nightmares, Covered Market traders have warned.

David Walker, owner of Stroff's Sausages in the market, said unless he and other market traders were allowed through the bus gate in High Street they would not be able to serve their customers properly.

The Covered Market traders have always opposed the Oxford Transport Strategy (OTS), which would stop private cars or delivery vehicles from driving through the High. They were represented by Mr Walker and former Lord Mayor John Power at yesterday's session of the three-week public inquiry into OTS.

Mr Walker told the inquiry he had a sausage-making unit in Stanley Road, off Iffley Road, about a mile from the shop in the market.

With High Street open to traffic in both directions the trip between unit and shop was so short that he could arrange an instant delivery from Stanley Road to the shop if a customer wanted something he did not have in stock, he said.

"We went for a production unit as close to the shop as possible because of the very quick route between the two. "This will prevent us from servicing our customers because the ability to respond to a customer's request, should we be out of stock, will be more difficult." If the bus gate - which will only allow buses, taxis and bicycles through - goes up in High Street, just east of Catte Street, a van coming from Stanley Road to the Covered Market would either have to go along Donnington Bridge Road, Abingdon Road and St Aldate's, or down Iffley Road, into the High, right into Longwall Street, up Parks Road, Broad Street and Market Street.

Mr Walker said either route would take three to four times as long as the present trip straight up High Street.

He added: "On the one hand the city council supports the market, a unique site which few other towns have, and yet our life is consistently made more difficult."

Adrian Trevelyn-Thomas, the barrister acting for Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council, said all businesses along High Street would still have unrestricted access from the St Aldate's end.

If Covered Market traders were given special permission to go through the High Street bus gate others would demand the same, making OTS impossible to enforce, he added. Earlier proposals for a second bus gate at the other end of High Street were dropped because of the damaging effect it might have on shops and businesses.

Keith Moffatt, a director of the Oxford Bus Company, gave evidence on behalf of his company and Stagecoach at the inquiry. He said buses accounted for just 7.1 per cent of the vehicles coming into the city centre but carried close to half the people coming into Oxford.

He also emphasised the companies' commitment to using the newest, least polluting buses.

"The two companies have replaced 130 vehicles during the past four years, 74 per cent of the city's bus fleet, at a cost of £12m," he said.

"By summer 1999 85 per cent of Oxford's buses will be equipped to the latest European emission standards."

Mr Moffatt added that the bus companies were prepared to see Cornmarket closed to buses, but only if general traffic was restricted in High Street. The bus operators are not in favour of banning buses from Queen Street, something the Green Party would like to see now and which may be put forward in future.

Other witnesses yesterday were Government transport adviser Prof Phillip Goodwin, the Oxford Preservation Trust, and the Oxford Civic Society, all supporting the OTS proposals.

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