Closure of Keble Road at its Junction with Banbury Road

1. In total 21 letters of comment have been received. The majority of these raise objections to the proposal on three main issues, the need to prevent motorists using Keble Road as a short cut, the poor visibility at the Parks Road/Keble Road junction and the congestion caused by queuing traffic at the Parks Road/Banbury Road signals.

2. Before 1 June 1999 many motorists travelling from the general direction of Beaumont Street to the Science Area used Broad Street and Parks Road. The closure of Broad Street meant that these motorists would now have to use St. Giles and either Keble Road/Blackhall Road/Museum Road or Parks Road as an alternative route. The former is not considered to be suitable, for what could be a significant number of vehicles, and these displaced vehicles are better accommodated at the Banbury Road/Parks Road traffic signals.

3. For those vehicles that do need to access Keble Road and hence exit again it is acknowledged that the visibility at the Parks Road junction is not that good. The disbenefit of this is considered to be outweighed by the need to reduce vehicles using Keble Road as a short cut. It should be noted that drivers exiting Keble Road do have the option of doing so via Blackhall Road and Museum Road.

4. At peak periods there are queues of traffic in Parks Road, some of which are travelling to St. Giles and add to the overall delays at the junction. This could be reduced by permitting the left turn from Keble Road into Banbury Road. An added benefit of permitting this is that those living and working in the Norham Manor area requiring access to St. Giles could do so without the need to pass through the Banbury Road/Parks Road junction, thus reducing the number of vehicles needing to be controlled by the traffic signals and hence reduce delays. The disbenefit of relaxing the restrictions at the Keble road junction is that it would make Keble Road an attractive route for those travelling across the city centre from the east. The fact that drivers on the existing route are delayed by the traffic signals acts as a restraint on traffic.

Relocation and Shortening of the Loading Bay on the south side of High Street, opposite Queens Lane

5. No comments were received.

Prohibition of Entry into the Slip Road Leading into Magdalen Street East

6. Of the six letters received all but one supported this proposal. The Disabled Drivers Association, while not opposing it, did raise the concern that generally they were no longer able to access other roads in the area from Magdalen Street East. Access through Magdalen Street East, for all but a limited number of vehicles, was restricted from 1 June 1999. This proposal only extended the length of the restriction to provide better advance warning and did not have a material effect on disabled badge holders.

Prohibition of right turns from and left turns into Longwall Street

7. Of the five letters received all supported the proposal.

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