Issue - meetings

Forward Plan Ref: 2020/124

Contact: Hugh Potter, Group Manager – Area Operations Hub Tel: 07766 998704/Paul Knight, Project Sponsor – Major Transport Projects Tel: 07584 909528

Report by Director for Community Operations (Interim) (CMDE6).

As a part of the wider western A40 Corridor improvement project, it is proposed to introduce a number of measures aimed at improving the flow of traffic to reduce journey times and help to improve road safety along the stretch of the A40 Northern By-pass approaching Wolvercote roundabout. This report presents responses received to a statutory consultation on a number of  proposals which will require the introduction of Traffic Regulation Orders:

The Cabinet Member for Environment is RECOMMENDED to approve:

(a)  proposed amended speeds limits comprising an extension of the 30mph speed limit west of the Wolvercote roundabout, westwards to beyond the A34 flyover bridge, and the introduction of a new 40mph speed limit (replacing parts of the existing 40mph & 60mph national speed limit);

(b) introduction of a bus lane for eastbound buses approaching Wolvercote roundabout from near the A34 flyover;

(c) the prohibition of U-turns on the A40, 200 metres east of the A34 Flyover at the new service sideroads on the A40 and 7.5tonne weight limits on the side roads being created as part of approved development adjacent to the A40 west of the Wolvercote roundabout at Oxford.

(d)  introduction of 7.5 tonne weight restrictions (with exemptions) on the 4 new access roads either side of the A40:

North side, approximately 300 metres west of Wolvercote roundabout, and 200 metres east of the A34 flyover; and

South side, approximately 270 metres west of Wolvercote roundabout, and 200 metres east of the A34 flyover.

Approved

Approved

Approved

Approved

Also noted:

Assurances given that HGV restrictions would be appropriately enforced with automatic number plate recognition cameras.

When these roads are open to review use of the eastbound bus lane by taxis.

The Cabinet Member for Environment considered (CMDE6) responses received to a number of  proposals as a part of the wider western A40 Corridor improvement project aimed at improving the flow of traffic, reduce journey times and help to improve road safety along the stretch of the A40 Northern By-pass approaching Wolvercote roundabout.

Councillor Charles Mathew expressed profound concerns that these measures ignored the role of the A40 to the wider public. Further speed limits would exacerbate existing queue problems at the head of this road which was a main conduit East for many thousands a day from all points west from Wales, Monmouthshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire and, pre-Covid, used by 32,000 vehicles per day. Add to that the many residential developments happening or planned in these areas and what was already a problem would then become a nightmare.  He considered these measures would only make that situation worse. The police had already indicated they would not be able to enforce them due to a lack of resources or possibly priority.  He could not see the rationale behind these measures and did not believe that they would be effective. The long-awaited Loop Farm link project, currently unfunded and now no longer part of the infrastructure planning for this area had represented a vital relief road option to the A40 traffic going north at this juncture and was preferable to what would now be a rat run in the North Oxford Development on the approach to the Wolvercote roundabout.  He considered it nonsensical to promote measures which would not be enforced by the Police, had the effect of further complicating the through traffic plans of thousands a day and asked the Cabinet Member to reconsider these proposals, in the light of the clear problems they would present.

Councillor Paul Buckley considered the Oxford North development had a major highways design flaw at its heart as he and others had explained at meetings of the City Council’s West Area Planning Committee and then its Planning Review Committee in 2019. The Oxford North outline plan contained an internal link road that crossed the centre of the site, linking the A40 and the A44. According to the plan, it would be a low capacity road with part of it even shared with pedestrians and cyclists but as we now know that there will be no external link road (the originally proposed Loop Farm Link Rd) to divert through traffic away from the Wolvercote roundabout there would be extreme congestion on the approaches to that roundabout, with a substantial fraction of the queuing traffic being A40-A44 through traffic with the internal link road presenting an obvious rat-run short-cut.  Through traffic approaching along the A40 would have been sitting in a long queue as it approached the junction with the internal link road and at peak times that queue could be at least 3km (according to Oxford North’s prediction). The strong motivation for all this through traffic would therefore be to divert through the centre  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14