Dear Councillors,

Oxford Civic Society is supportive of the ambitions represented by the core package of the Connecting Oxford scheme.   However, we are disappointed by the absence of detail surrounding the traffic filter component in particular and the estimated effects of their displaced vehicle journeys which recent meetings between officers and residents’ groups have been unable to rectify. 

Bearing in mind the fate of the experimental ‘bus gate’ proposals in the city centre in 2020 we are concerned that in an information vacuum, public opposition could build which might threaten political acceptability of the whole project.

An unremarked feature of the current proposals is the degree of overlap between the full ZEZ and the central filters in their impact on traffic volumes.  We believe that this feature could be exploited constructively to overcome potential difficulties in the coming months.   Two factors are key:

1. In the early years when EVs are relatively few the full ZEZ will operate in practice as a congestion charge, reducing traffic into the central area whilst also promoting lower emissions
2. All three proposed central filters are located within the ZEZ.  Hence the restraining effect of the ZEZ on traffic volumes will apply also to vehicles travelling around or across the centre, independently of the presence of filters.  Without the filters ZEZ revenues would be greater since they would include a proportion of vehicles otherwise forcibly displaced.

In this situation we believe that, together with the proposed WPL, a large proportion of the benefits of the full Connecting Oxford package could be obtained whilst deferring implementation of the central filters.  

The planned doubling of ZEZ charges in 2025 will mean that the restraining effect of the scheme will be maintained despite an increasing proportion of exempted zero emission vehicles.

Later in the decade as the proportion of vehicles liable to a ZEZ charge lessens further, so too will its traffic restraint effects.  To maintain lower traffic volumes thereafter options would then include either

1. Introducing the central filters as initially conceived, or
2. Revising the ZEZ tariff to replace the previous zero emission vehicle exemption by a low minimum charge

Option (b) has the advantage that a restraining effect would be applied to all vehicles travelling to the city centre.

Either way initial deferral of the filters would allow a less complex package to be introduced and for the situation to be reviewed in the light of conditions as they materialise following implementation of the full ZEZ and the planned increase in charges in 2025.

We believe that this phased approach would prove more likely to win public support and would urge you to consider it as an option in your forthcoming deliberations.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Green

(Chair, Oxford Civic Society)

Peter Headicar

(Transport Adviser to the Oxford Civic Society)