A FAILURE to plan properly for the opening of the Westgate Shopping Centre is threatening to cause traffic chaos in Oxford, transport bosses have been warned.

At a meeting yesterday, opposition councillors lambasted Conservative-run Oxfordshire County Council for ‘confusion’ around the closure of Queen Street to traffic.

They claimed the buses it would displace, combined with a lower number of spaces at the new Westgate’s car park, would cause major disruption when the centre reopens in October.

The county council has vowed to press ahead with pedestrianising Queen Street in time for the opening, despite warnings from bus companies there is not yet a suitable replacement route.

Oxford Mail:

But Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Fawcett said: “It is complete madness to decide to close Queen Street to buses before you have a plan for where the buses will go.

“For example, I can’t see how the X3 can get from the railway station to its most used stop on St Aldates if it can’t use Queen Street.”

Labour’s Steve Curran said a lower number of spaces at the revamped centre’s underground car park – about 1,000, down from 1,200 in the old centre – would lead to further problems.

“There will be cars queuing up outside the Westgate along Oxpens”, he said. “If you also have a doubling-up of buses because of Queen Street you will exacerbate the traffic problems, pollution and issues with the elderly and infirm being able to access bus stops.”

And Susanna Pressel, also of Labour, added: “The confusion around this issue has been met universally with derision.”

Responding to the comments, county council cabinet member for transport David Nimmo Smith told councillors plans to cope with the changes would come forward after May’s elections.

But he also referred to a vote last year, in which he unsuccessfully urged cabinet members to support him in delaying pedestrianisation.

He added: “A decision was made.

“In that vote, I was unsuccessful but it was a democratic decision.

“We are in discussions with the bus operators about how to re-do the bus routes and all the arrangements will come back to this council for review.”

The transport boss also tried to pin some of the blame on Oxford City Council, the planning authority, for allowing fewer parking spaces at the revamped Westgate. He said: “The planning authority forced those problems on the rest of society.”

But last night a city council source said the comments were ‘silly’. The source said: “We had weekly face-to-face meetings with the county council about this.

“They were not just fully involved – they agreed to every single aspect.”