Oxfordshire’s Liberal Democrat County Council are consulting on the introduction of a £5 congestion charge for cars in Oxford city centre to ease traffic pressure during the Botley Road works.
What is happening in Oxford?
In August 2026, rebuilding of Oxford Rail station is scheduled to end, assuming the project can be completed to timescale. The re-development includes blocking the Botley Road next to the station. Drivers must use extended routes to reach Oxford destinations because of the Botley Road closure’s implications for traffic movements in the city.
The County Council has delayed implementation of its traffic filters on six major roads in Oxford which would have reduced traffic on these key routes.
The technology for the traffic filters is already in place, so the Council is proposing a congestion charge on these roads instead, utilising the technology in situ. A charge will be applied to cars only at a rate of £5 per day, 7.00am-7.00pm on four roads and in rush hours on the other two, with 100 days free of charge initially.
Reactions to the congestion charge
Reactions to the proposed congestion charge have been positive from both of Oxford’s bus companies, the cycling campaign group Cyclox, the Green Party, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran, and the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel.
Opponents include the Labour minority administration on Oxford City Council, Labour MP for Oxford East Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s councillors on the County Council, and business interests.
The Citizens Assembly held recently in Oxford recorded a 74% preference for a congestion charge, but the Labour administration of the city has set this view aside. Prior to county elections in Oxfordshire in May 2025, Labour was part of a ruling coalition with the Lib Dems and Greens which supported traffic filters. But withdrawal from the coalition was accompanied by dropping support for them.
The calculation that this might see off threats from Reform and the Independent Oxford Alliance and increase Labour voting did not work. It seems to have consolidated Lib Dem and Green support against all the parties opposing traffic reduction.
Opponents of the congestion charge have major problems
The County Election results
The results of the Oxfordshire County Council elections in May 2025 show major growth for parties supporting traffic reduction measures in Oxford and Oxfordshire.
Of 69 seats on the County Council, the Liberal Democrats have a majority with 36, and the Green Party representation rose from three to seven. The other parties did not do well. Both Conservative and Labour had losses, now having only 10 and 12 councillors, respectively.
Reform did not make much impact in Oxfordshire, gaining just one councillor; the anti-traffic measures Independent Oxford Alliance, expected to do well in Oxford, also gained just one councillor.
Parties supporting traffic reduction measures are in the ascendancy on the County Council, whereas I had expected pro-traffic parties to do better, bearing in mind Oxford’s election results in May 2024.
Public support for traffic reduction measures
Just under 60% of people living in Oxford support Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). Many people strongly support having a wide variety of facilities within a 15-minute walk from their homes in the Oxford area.
As the second cycling city in England by bike movements, it is not surprising that appreciable support for traffic reductions exist.
Support is likely compounded by the high level of short-distance car journeys in the city, with about 40% of journeys under two miles. Being a regional employment centre also generates a lot of inward bound traffic, as do Oxford’s concentration of hospitals and schools.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods decrease traffic and congestion
A study comparing pre- and post-pandemic traffic shows declines in areas including the LTNs and proximate roads and in through traffic as well. So, learned experience for transport users in Oxford does not tally with arguments that congestion is caused by traffic reduction measures rather than by roadworks and rush hour traffic linked to schools, workplaces, and universities.
There’s no business like Oxford business
Since traffic reducing measures of various kinds were first mooted, business interests have opposed them on the grounds they could experience business impacts. But if traffic access were such an issue, no shopping centre – such as the large Westgate Centre in Oxford, or the very successful Covered Market – would ever have been built. Footfall in such areas has been shown to be better than on trafficked streets. Oxford’s business community representatives are not moved by this evidence.
People do carry on using car parks in Oxford
Some Westgate shoppers would apparently cease using the Westgate Centre if the £5 congestion charge was in use. However, adding £5 to the low car parking charges in the Westgate carpark still leaves the overall cost to users low for a city centre site, compared to other sites like the Worcester Street car park.
Oxford City Council, squeezed by long-term government austerity measures, raised its car parking charges by 5% in April 2025, with some sites getting 9 and 11% increases. If Government will not restore the Revenue Support Grant to councils, higher charges for car parking and other chargeable activities will continue to prevail everywhere.
Legal avenues for traffic enthusiasts not promising
Recently, an attempted legal challenge to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Oxford was withdrawn on King’s Counsel advice as likely to fail. If this attempt at questioning the LTNs through judicial review failed, then other attempts would fail too.
Is the congestion charge a suitable longer-term measure?
The success of the London congestion charge has led to some suggestions that this temporary measure, about to go out to five-week consultation, could be a permanent initiative for Oxford.
However, this is not enough to deal with all of Oxford’s traffic problems. These include exceptionally damaged and poorly repaired pavements and roads throughout the city, and inadequate linkages between what should be walking and cycling networks.
Other traffic measures
Six major roads in Oxford having traffic filters was always too few. The other obvious candidates are the Botley Road and the Abingdon Road.
The first is closed by works to Oxford rail station which were cited as the reason to stop implementation of traffic filters on the six roads. The second is the favourite queuing route for those who want cheap parking in the Westgate underground car park. This is a problem created by Oxford City Council which allowed the Westgate’s owners to set their own, low, car parking charges. This was just as bad a decision as extending the area of the Seacourt Park and Ride, which is prone to flooding.
Other measures should include making new homes in the city car-free by covenant; constructing new apartments above the ground level of the vast brownfield reserve of surface car parks Oxford possesses; applying electronic road pricing to Oxford and major roads which access the city, towards a national scheme in future.
Direction of travel
The contest of wills about traffic reduction in Oxford is not over. However, vigorous attempts to damage efforts in that direction have so far failed and a trend towards traffic reduction is established.
Further bus and active travel investments can do even more to push aside persistent opponents whose views seem to be weakened by County Election results, actual traffic figures, the reality of consumer movements within Oxford’s shopping areas, and consistent public support for traffic reduction measures.
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