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Public meeting over controversial parking permits

11:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in Oxford

A PUBLIC meeting about plans to introduce residents’ parking permits in East Oxford will be held on Thursday.

The meeting, organised by Oxford City Council’s Labour and Green Parties, will take place at the Evangelical Free Church in Magdalen Road from 7.30pm.

Oxfordshire County Council has proposed bringing controlled parking zones into parts of Magdalen Road and Divinity Road.

It is currently consulting on the plan.

City councillor John Tanner said: “We are hoping it will be an information meeting.

“We want to get across to people that the consultation, which ends next week on Friday, is a choice between what the county council is proposing, with all its flaws, and doing nothing.

“We also want to get across that everyone should take part in the consultation to tell the county council what they think.”

The aim of the CPZs is to protect parking spaces for residents living in the roads and cut parking congestion.

The total cost of the project is expected to be about £290,000. But the scheme has involved years of talks and the County Hall has already spent more than £312,000 on six previous public consultations.

A CPZ in Magdalen Road was approved by the council in 2009, but it was deemed the controversial decision needed further consultation. Permits in Divinity Road have proved less controversial but the county council will not introduce them until a decision has been reached on Magdalen Road.

Comments(9)

chamox says...
12:08pm Mon 13 Feb 12

people of east oxford are wasting there time going to the consultation as the OCC would have already made up there mind that the parking Scheme will go ahead.... after all they need to raise more money to pay for the £2 an hour pay increases to there employees they have just announced

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oxbow says...
12:29pm Mon 13 Feb 12

Agree, they've already decided. They didn't listen to the residents of Headington, but put it in anyway so that the hospitals could charge for their car parks. It's all about money money money. The minimum you can now park in the Headington Car park is now 2 hours so that they can get more money, and no one parks there for more than an hour for a quick shop.

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virgotae73 says...
1:46pm Mon 13 Feb 12

I would like to ask who is gonna police the parking? On the Cowley road they park where they like, including on the pathways, and they never get towed or even parking tickets!!!!

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sparky123456 says...
2:18pm Mon 13 Feb 12

they haven't already made up their minds. if they had they wouldn't be doing a consultation. I take it you don't live in the area? if you did you'd know that they are now proposing 3 schemes as previous consultations fell down because the residents of Iffley Fields didn't want a CPZ (see people power winning) so now they hope by splitting it they'll at least introduce a scheme for Divinity Road. Anyway this isn't about raising funds - this is a much needed scheme to reduce congestion and prevent students, HMO's and commuters using these roads as their own car park. I'd happily pay £100+ per year for a permit for the smug satisfaction of knowing that a house of 4 students can't bring 4 cars and dump them there without using them all term. Incidentally the road along Chester St, Aston St and Stanley Rd were almost clear this morning. Strange as it's half term week....

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chamox says...
3:59pm Mon 13 Feb 12

Bright sparky obviously works for the council as I couldn’t think any one else would defend their actions in causing the traffic chaos that they are so happy to keep implementing around the streets of Oxford...Also if people have a valid tax disc why shouldt they park in the Rd where they are living. If you have a problem with HMO’s and students you should appreciate they will be paying more rent to their landlords to compensate for the OCC £400 per year new licensing scheme so I guess they will be paying £100 each extra just for living in one of these houses

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bobsmith61 says...
5:13pm Mon 13 Feb 12

I'm all for reducing congestion and it's dead easy to implement, just paint double yellow lines down both sides of the road, congestion gone, easy.

Roads are for driving on to get from A to B, they are not car parks and just because you own a house in an area doesn't give you the right to park on the road.

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Andrew:Oxford says...
5:14pm Mon 13 Feb 12

sparky123456 wrote:
they haven't already made up their minds. if they had they wouldn't be doing a consultation. I take it you don't live in the area? if you did you'd know that they are now proposing 3 schemes as previous consultations fell down because the residents of Iffley Fields didn't want a CPZ (see people power winning) so now they hope by splitting it they'll at least introduce a scheme for Divinity Road. Anyway this isn't about raising funds - this is a much needed scheme to reduce congestion and prevent students, HMO's and commuters using these roads as their own car park. I'd happily pay £100+ per year for a permit for the smug satisfaction of knowing that a house of 4 students can't bring 4 cars and dump them there without using them all term. Incidentally the road along Chester St, Aston St and Stanley Rd were almost clear this morning. Strange as it's half term week....
What's the difference between 4 students in a HMO each owning a car and, almost as likely, 4 unrelated professionals in an HMO with a mix of private and company cars? Aren't they both just as entitled to follow the formal process to apply for a residents' parking permit? Should adults undertaking OU courses be forced to sell their cars?

It's not surprising there are fewer cars during half term week. A lot of residents will be away on holiday, so many cars will be at long-stay airport car parks. A considerable number of people with children will be off school too, so not driving to work.

The true state of affairs is that as cars have grown wider with safety features, it's no longer tenable to have them parked on both sides of many streets in East Oxford.

If a CPZ is introduced, and street work is undertaken in the DRAMA area, then it's time to undertake more radical reforms:-

- Halve the number of spaces.

- Introduce a one-way system with Divnity Road operating in the "Up" direction and Southfield in the "Down" direction.

- *Auction* the permits annually by sealed bid to qualifying residents, thus maximising the revenue to the local authority in order that everyone in the city benefits from a minority privilege of parking in the city centre.

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Cathena says...
9:16am Tue 14 Feb 12

"Introduce a one-way system with Divnity Road operating in the "Up" direction and Southfield in the "Down" direction." This has been suggested for over 40 years but no one takes any notice. If they did, it wouldn't make much difference as some drivers just ignore one-way street signs anyway.

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Andrew:Oxford says...
5:07pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Cathena wrote:
"Introduce a one-way system with Divnity Road operating in the "Up" direction and Southfield in the "Down" direction." This has been suggested for over 40 years but no one takes any notice. If they did, it wouldn't make much difference as some drivers just ignore one-way street signs anyway.
This time there is funding for change though.

My suggestion of sealed-bid auctioning of permits must be popular, there's been no negative feedback.

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