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ITEM EX17

EXECUTIVE - 23 JULY 2002

ST GILES’ AND BEAUMONT STREET, OXFORD COACH STOPPING POINTS

1. The Executive on 21 March 2002 considered a report on coach stopping points in St Giles’ and Beaumont Street, which had been provided under an experimental traffic regulation order. The experimental order, which was introduced on 19 April 2001, is due to expire on 17 September 2002. The experimental order had originally been introduced to provide a clear indication as to where coaches should be stopping in the two streets, rather than them stopping randomly wherever they could. The order sought to provide a better means of enforcement against those coaches that stayed for too long.
2. Although there was more comment received opposing the experiment than supporting it, my conclusion in the report to the Executive was in favour of making the order permanent on the grounds that the consequences of abandoning the order were more serious. Changes to the physical features that support the order would provide the best means of controlling coaches in these streets in the short term. I also recommended that long-term solutions to the accommodation of tourist coaches be explored with the City Council.
3. Following representations at the Executive, officers were asked, inter alia, to consult interested bodies on whether there was a viable alternative to coaches parking in St Giles’ and Beaumont Street which would not prejudice business and environmental interests. The full minute is reproduced in Annex 1.

Consultation

4. Following the March Executive, officers met with colleagues at the City Council with responsibility for tourism management in order to discuss a way forward, both for St Giles’ in the short term and for the City centre as a whole. The City has a Tourism Strategy which includes objectives to seek a larger coach park and better enforcement of on-street regulations. The general view from City tourism officers is that if progress can be made on these objectives then the focus will shift away from St Giles’ as the prime stopping destination for visitor coaches.
5. The issue of coaches in St Giles’ subsequently arose at two of the City Council’s Area Committees and a public meeting was called. On the basis that all the consultative bodies identified by the Executive were being invited to the public meeting, County officers attended and listened to the views expressed. The meeting was held on 27 June and was attended by approximately 80 people, including local residents and representatives of Oxford Civic Society, Oxford Preservation Trust, St. John’s College, Oxford Guild of Guides, local traders and coach operators (through the Confederation of Passenger Transport).
6. A note of the meeting was taken and has been circulated to Members of the Executive (see Annex 2). Views expressed at the meeting served to reinforce the complexity and controversial nature of the issue, which is clearly not easily resolved. Very few new ideas were put forward although officers took away a number of suggestions, such as revising the duration for limited waiting and the fine for overstay, which will be considered further.
7. What seems to be clear is that a multi-faceted approach is likely to be necessary, along with careful consideration of the best means of ensuring effective operation and enforcement. Such a strategy is likely to include several locations for set down and pick up, improved coach parking at Oxpens and possibly elsewhere, better information for coach and tour operators, guides and passengers as well as an innovative system of managing vehicles around the City centre involving good signing and possibly other means of communication.
8. Before reporting back to the Executive on a proposed long-term strategy for managing coach based tourism, officers need to work up proposals and seek to build consensus with a range of interested bodies. This still leaves the matter of the experimental order in St Giles’ and Beaumont Street, which the Executive needs to determine at this meeting.

Experimental Order

9. Prior to the provision of the experimental order, coaches setting down or picking up passengers in St Giles’ would stop at the first convenient point for their passengers. This often meant that coaches would be stopped adjacent to the pay and display spaces. Generally, for right hand drive vehicles this did not present a particular safety problem for passengers. However, for left-hand drive vehicles, passengers were discharged into the main carriageway. This not only put them in direct conflict with motor traffic but, because the coaches were parked on the cycle lane, also caused additional safety problems for cyclists. Furthermore, coaches were regularly stopping in the Taylorian layby causing distress to the staff and visitors of the Taylorian Institute and also blocking access for public service vehicles.
10. The intention of the experimental order was to provide a focus for where coaches were required to stop. Although there are still instances of coaches stopping in the vicinity of the Taylorian lay-by, the designated coach stopping area tends to be the first point that coaches go to if there is space. The problem of passengers alighting from left-hand drive vehicles has been eased by the provision of a "pedestrian" area between the coaches and the cycle lane and main carriageway.
11. The experimental arrangements were installed so as to be removable at short notice without the need to undertake a large amount of physical work. This resulted in a "minimalist" and easily damaged physical layout and has been a cause of some of the adverse comment regarding the safety and visual appearance of the scheme.
12. The report to March Executive explained that, if the order were abandoned, instead of coaches going elsewhere in the City centre, there would be a real risk that coach activity in St Giles’ would revert to the free-for-all it once was, where coaches would attempt to stop and set down or pick up their passengers wherever space allowed. The consequences of that are potential additional safety hazards, especially for pedestrians and cyclists, a general disorderliness to the street, and the frequent blockage of general traffic, bus and cycle lanes and car parking areas and return to unsatisfactory situation outside Taylorian Institute.
13. Whilst the process of promoting the experimental order in St Giles’ has, to some extent, drawn attention to the difficulties of visitor coaches stopping in the street and provided a focus for criticism, both from those who support and those who oppose such provision, it is therefore my view that for the County Council now to abandon the order could lead to even greater criticism if the coach stopping situation deteriorated to its previously unacceptable level.
14. If the scheme were to continue beyond the experimental period as an interim stage, the existing painted islands would be removed and replaced with purpose built kerbed islands. This would address some of the present safety concerns as it would provide a clear area for passengers alighting from a left-hand drive vehicle and better demarcation between coaches and other traffic. The opportunity would also be taken to realign the cycle lanes and colour their surface, in line with the remainder of St Giles’.
15. It is therefore proposed that for the reasons of safety, better enforcement through regulation, and consequently lower pollution and other impacts, the currently experimental arrangements in St Giles’ be continued as an interim stage pending the full review of visitor coach management in the City centre. This review would involve careful consideration, in consultation with interested bodies, of a range of options and combinations of these. It should be understood that the only way to continue the present arrangements for the time being is to confirm the present experimental order. However, it can, and indeed most likely would, be changed as part of the implementation of the new strategy.
16. As part of the interim stage it is also proposed that changes to road markings are made to improve the safety of cyclists and other road users; and that over-runnable islands, enabling coaches not at the front of the stopping area to depart, are introduced between the coach stopping areas and the cycle lanes. Plan no. MP/1/006 illustrating these features has been placed in the Members’ Resource Centre and will also be displayed at the meeting. As part of the on-going work on developing aspects of a longer term visitor coach strategy, plans illustrating how the Taylorian lay-by might be closed and how Albion Place car park might be utilised have also been placed in the Members’ Resource Centre and will be displayed at the meeting.

Environmental Implications

17. The visual and other environmental impact of large coaches in Oxford’s historic core can be serious. The interim arrangements proposed will enable enforcement to be improved which will control the location and length of stay of these vehicles and prevent a return to a largely unregulated situation that prevailed previously. A long term strategy for managing visitor coaches is being developed in consultation with a range of interests. This strategy will have a clear objective of minimising the environmental impact of coaches in the City centre.

Financial and Staff Implications

18. Work to bring into effect the proposed interim arrangements, involving the introduction of some additional physical measures in St Giles’, can be carried out within existing staff and capital resources allocated to OTS. The development of a long-term visitor coach management strategy will be progressed using existing staff with the co-operation of the City Council’s unit responsible for tourism management.

RECOMMENDATIONS

19. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

1. agree to continuing the arrangements for coach stopping in St Giles’ and Beaumont Street, pending the development of a long term strategy for managing visitor coaches in the City centre, by means of a traffic order to the same effect as the present experimental order, on the basis that this will need to be reviewed in the light of the outcome of (c) below;
2. agree the changes to road markings and the provision of the islands separating the coach stopping points from cycle lanes as shown on Plan no. MP/1/006; and
3. request the Director of Environmental Services to continue consultation with the City Council and interested bodies on the development of a long term strategy for managing visitor coaches in the City centre and report back to the Executive as soon as possible with new recommendations and a timetable for implementation.

DAVID YOUNG
Director of Environmental Services

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officers: Peter Mann tel: (01865) 815479, John Cramer tel: (01865) 815963

July 20002

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