Low traffic neighbourhoods have been described as an ‘experiment’ that has ‘not worked’ after being rolled out in Oxford.
A Conservative and Independent alliance administration introduced the scheme, which has led to gridlock mayhem in the rural Oxfordshire countryside and sparked fury from locals, back in 2021.
The first of the controversial LTNs were then first installed in the Cowley area in May 2022 – with the Oxfordshire County Council facing rabid opposition ever since.
The LTNs aim to reduce through traffic and make neighbourhoods quieter and became more common during the pandemic, when councils wanted to encourage cycling as a form of commuting.
But since their introduction, bollards have been ripped from the ground, run over and set on fire, while the wooden planters cutting off streets graffitied and their plants pulled out.
After an 18-month trial, the scheme was made permanent in 2023 by Oxfordshire County Council, now run by a Liberal Democrat and Green alliance, after no party gained enough seats for a majority in the 2021 election.
Councillor Eddie Reeves, leader of the local Conservative group, said that under a Tory administration they would have not continued with the scheme.
He told the Oxford Mail: ‘The Lib Dems and Greens came into office to much fanfare in 2021 and put the rocket boosters behind LTNs.
The first of the controversial LTNs were first installed in the Cowley area in May 2022
After an 18-month trial, the scheme was made permanent in 2023 by Oxfordshire County Council now
Florence Pugh’s father told the council that his actress daughter had stepped up to pay his staff’s wages as he claimed LTNs had wrecked his businesses
‘The LTN experiment has not worked […] they have left a lot of people feeling as though the council do not listen to them.’
He added that removing existing LTNs would be ‘a further expense that would be difficult to justify’ given his party’s focus on fixing the roads in the county.
Liberal Democrat leader of Oxfordshire County Council Liz Leffman said: ‘The LTNs were introduced by the Conservatives long before we became the administration.
‘There are people living in low traffic neighbourhoods who really like the fact that their children can safely walk and cycle to school, and that seems to me to be absolutely a priority.’
Among critics is Florence Pugh’s father who said his actress daughter had stepped up to pay his staff’s wages over the Christmas period in 2022 as he claimed LTNs had wrecked his businesses.
Clinton Pugh, 66, who has owned various restaurants on the Cowley Road in Oxford for three decades, called Oxfordshire County Council ‘bullies’ when it approved measures to make the controversial traffic calming scheme permanent.
He had owned three businesses in Oxford – Cafe Coco, KazBar and Cafe Tarifa and worked on the Cowley Road for more than three decades.
Last October Pugh, who stars in Marvel’s latest film Thunderbolts, announced the sale of Cafe Coco blaming the council for its ‘ill thought out traffic calming disaster.’
Florence Pugh, 29, was supported by a host of her loved ones at the premiere of her new Marvel film on Tuesday evening at Cineworld Leicester Square (pictured)
Mr Pugh has previously spoken out against the Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme – introduced in the city in 2021
While his tapas restaurant Kazbar is still up and running, he said he ‘noticed a huge decline in business’ losing hundreds of thousands of pounds
His four children – Don’t Worry Darling actress Florence, Game of Thrones actor Toby Sebastian, 31, actress and voice coach Arabella Gibbins, 37, and actress Rafaela Pugh, 19 – all cut their teeth in Clinton’s restaurants, helping out for pocket money and going to school in the local area.
Spanish-inspired Cafe Tarifa was repossessed last year.
While his tapas restaurant Kazbar is still up and running, he said he ‘noticed a huge decline in business’ losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Speaking at the meeting that decided to keep the LTNs, he said: ‘I have noticed a huge decline in businesses and my businesses. I am one of the longest running business owners on the Cowley Road.
‘I have had to hand one of my businesses back because I was behind with the rent and I’ve lost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The county council also introduced a pilot Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ) in February 2022 with charges in place from 7am until 7pm and then removed hundreds of parking spaces to make way for cycle lanes – 195 of which were on the same road as Mr Pugh’s businesses.
And while Clinton says that ‘no one is against a greener, cleaner Oxford’, he said the plans had cut off vital trade to the area.
When the initiative was first introduced, Clinton said takings at Café Coco, which opened in 1992 and has counted Radiohead and Supergrass as patrons, fell 25 per cent as footfall plummeted.
Mr Pugh blamed the sale of Cafe Coco on Oxfordshire City Council for its ‘ill thought out traffic calming disaster’
Mr Pugh has been at war with Oxford City Council previously ordering him to take down a huge sign outside his restaurant
And he was later threatened with a £2,500 fine after he erected a banner on the side of the cafe criticising the scheme.
In November 2020, Clinton pasted a billboard protesting the initiative on the side of Cafe Coco – finishing it with the rallying call: ‘So much for democracy! Help us fight this arrogance.’
But Oxford City Council demanded the sign be taken down – only for Clinton to paste another banner on top, emblazoned with ‘Censored!’, ‘So much for democracy!’ and ‘1984?’.
The council sent Mr Pugh a letter on January 13 last year warning that ‘no advertisement consent had been sought’ for the signage and telling him he could face a hefty fine of £2,500 if he was found guilty of an offence under planning laws.
He claimed he was just telling the truth – that the environmental initiative is strangling outlying businesses that depend on passing motorists for their trade.
