NEWS ITEM

A new year’s resolution

County Council to propose a Jericho and Walton Manor low traffic neighbourhood

Next year, the fraught issue of the Walton Street barrier should be resolved. By the end of May, the County Council is aiming to have implemented a basic Jericho and Walton Manor low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) scheme – which will determine the fate of the barrier.  

The south end of Walton Street was closed in May 2020, initially for general repairs and subsequently for filling sink holes. The Council then took advantage of the extended works to convert the closure into an ad-hoc low-traffic experiment – a move greeted with joy by some residents, but with dismay by others. 

Now the debate is somewhat calmer, or at least less binary. Most people accept that Jericho and Walton Manor need less through traffic –  to block rat-runs, cut pollution, increase safety, and distribute traffic more fairly. The only question is how best to achieve this. 

Different groups offer their own recipes, but they have common ingredients. These include one-way streets, banning left or right turns, widening pavements to accommodate café tables, or pedestrianizing part of the main shopping area. As for the barrier, the cognoscenti now refer to this as a ‘modal filter’ – a system that allows passage by some modes of traffic such as pedestrian or cyclists or buses, while stopping or limiting others. 

The task for the County traffic planners is to arrive at an optimum permutation. They are going to be busy, because Jericho is only one of LTNs they have to work on across the city and the county. Jericho and Walton Manor is ‘Oxford scheme 2’; the others in the city are for Cowley, Headington, Littlemore and Rose Hill.

All of this is being funded by a £2.9 million grant from a Department of Transport COVID emergency fund that aims to ‘make journeys easier by bike and on foot as lockdown eases’. Of this, Jericho will maybe get around £55,000. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but enough for some simple filters, planters, or actions that don’t immediately involve digging things up or relandscaping the street.

All this should happen fairly quickly. Measures need be in place before the current experimental traffic order for the barrier expires at the end of May 2021. Activity for the planners will start in earnest in January as they hold workshops with councillors and ‘key stakeholders’. On January 27 the workshop will include representatives from Jericho Connections, the Jericho Community Association, Jericho Low Traffic Neighbourhood, SaveJerichoLTN and the Walton Manor Residents Association. Then from February or March there will be a widespread public consultation on the possible options.

But no need to wait until then if you have your own ideas. You can contact Robert Freshwater, the lucky transport planner who has become the County’s public face for the Jericho scheme. He says he is happy to receive suggestions at: activetraveloxfordcity@oxfordshire.gov.uk. You can see all the areas under consideration at this website County Council Active Travel – Phase 2

Below are illustrations of the proposals of three local groups. All converge towards lower traffic, but differ on how or whether to reopen the south end of Walton Street. The proposals are illustrated below in the order in which they appeared,  but for further information please follow the links.

Author: Peter Stalker