Issue - meetings

This Council considered setting up a Congestion Commission as part of its last budget debate. This measure was not taken up at the time. However, this Council now considers that it is time for such a commission to be established.

This Council notes that its ambitious suite of traffic management measures is due to be rolled out, in large measure, before the next set of elections to Oxfordshire County Council in May 2025. These include Oxford’s traffic filters and workplace parking tax, which are now largely enshrined in the Council’s budget and will take place unless there is a change of administration next year.

If all such measures go ahead, Oxfordshire motorists could be hit by £57million in fines and charges over a five-year period broken down as follows:

• ExpandedZero Emissions Zone £25m;

• Traffic Filters (Four-sector Plan) £11m;

• Workplace Parking Tax £21m.

For clarity, the purpose of a Congestion Commission is not to water down or frustrate the administration’s policies, for which there is budgetary provision. Rather, its object would be to assess the likely effectiveness of such measures and advise as to whether other measures might be given effect after next year’s local elections as supplements or substitutes for such policies.

Council requests Cabinet to establish a Congestion Commission to comprise elected members, local businesspeople, public sector leaders from the Council’s health, education and blue light partners, civil society and faith group leaders, and academics with relevant expertise in the field. 

Note: The motion, if passed, would constitute the exercise of an executive function in which case it will be referred to the Cabinet together with any advice the Council may wish to give, in accordance with Rule 13.5.1 (i) of the Council Procedure Rules in the Constitution.

The motion fell as the issue had already been discussed under item 14. [CPR 11.5(iii)].

The motion fell as the issue had already been discussed under item 14. [Council Procedure Rule 11.5(iii)].