Oxford ‘concealed key’ climate zone data

Left-wing council officials accused of ‘railroading through’ green scheme that could increase traffic

‘The Cabinet must explain this worrying chain of events as a matter of urgency’

‘In Oxfordshire, a car is no longer a car. It is a “private vehicle”, a policy problem to be solved through restrictions’

OXFORD council chiefs “covered up” data that risked “jeopardising” its highly controversial climate zones which will ban residents from travelling directly between suburbs, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Six traffic filters, dubbed “bus gates”, will close off arterial roads to cars in an attempt to relieve congestion and promote cycling in a trial starting next year.

Local drivers will be given 100-day annual permits to cross the boundaries – or only 25-day permits if they live outside the city – and fined £70 through ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras on other days unless they take a detour on to the ring road, with buses, HGVs, cyclists and blue-badge holders exempt.

However, Oxfordshire county council has been accused of “hiding crucial figures” from residents that show its scheme could increase traffic.

Tory councillors are now demanding the Labour-Lib Dem-Green coalition return to the drawing board, criticising them for “acting like masters” who “railroad through” climate ideas in a “democracy-free zone”.

Amid opposition in the city, Liz Leffman, the council’s leader, has called her critics “conspiracy theorists” and the police have been called in, while thousands have signed petitions against it.

At least 3,500 people took part in the council’s consultation between Sept 5 and Oct 9 last year – though could not state if they agreed or disagreed with it.

During this official survey, the council provided a “summary report” that said “modelling estimates” show the scheme “will reduce traffic flows by about 20 per cent within the city inside the ring road, and about 35 per cent in the city centre” but “increase total traffic flows by around 3 per cent on the ring road”.

The claims were based on the modelling data, but the council refused to publish it in full until the consultation had closed, even though it received it a month before the survey opened.

The full results, obtained by this newspaper, show traffic will increase in eight out of 19 locations modelled and the speed of traffic will stay the same or decrease in all but one of these areas, some of which are already controversial low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs).

In the worst cases, traffic is forecast to increase on the arterial A4144 Woodstock Road by 62.4 per cent in the morning rush hour, and the bus gate on Marston Ferry Road will not improve bus journey times.

Traffic is also set to increase by an average of 10 per cent during the week on Botley Road.

The council also promised the Department for Transport that it would approve the filters six months before the public survey even began, to clinch £32.8million of Government funding towards new electric buses.

The Telegraph has obtained email chains between council officers, in which staff admitted the data could put the scheme “into jeopardy”, so “we should stick to our guns” and not publish it until the consultation closed.

Staff said the council had “taken legal advice” backing its decision to withhold the data, but when asked for this via Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, the council claimed it “was provided verbally in meetings where no minutes were taken”. Other exchanges discuss how the modelling data “lit up Twitter”.

The “deplorable” revelations have thrown the scheme into doubt, with Tory councillors bringing a motion next week to re-run the consultation and find the true scale of opposition.

Cllr Eddie Reeves, the leader of the Tory opposition, said Oxford is now “a troublingly democracy-free zone” and he was “extremely concerned” that the council cabinet’s emergency approval of the restrictions in November “no longer commands public support”.

He said: “Decisions affecting thousands of residents and businesses across Oxfordshire are now seemingly railroaded through by Left-wing councillors, following dubious public consultations that are either ignored or skewed to deliver their desired result.

“In Oxfordshire, a car is no longer a car. It is a ‘private vehicle’, a policy problem to be solved through restrictions that make driving freely virtually impossible. The Cabinet must explain this worrying chain of events as a matter of urgency.”

Cllr Liam Walker, a Tory member in the county council, said: “It’s a coverup; they are acting like masters.”

An Oxfordshire county council spokesman claimed the data withheld was not “vital” and that “too much technical detail can reduce response rates”.