I own Pens Plus on the High Street: it’s an iconic store that has served academics, students, Oxford residents, tourists and many others for over 50 years. I bought the store from the previous owners in October 2019. I took it on knowing that the High Street had a steady decline but I had some ideas to revitalise the store, attract more customers and eventually employing 2 – 3 members of staff. The location was one of the key factors in my decision to purchase the business. I was also motivated to preserve what I consider to be a part of Oxford’s heritage as indeed the High street itself is.
If the High street is the heart of the city the roads are its veins and arteries. Block the veins and arteries and the heart dies. The High Street has already suffered some serious attacks and only the resilience, creativity and passion of the traders has ensured there is some semblance of a High Street left. I fear these bus gates will be one attack too many and the heart will finally give up.
Since purchasing the store I have often questioned my own sanity and then along came the pandemic. Despite this I am still optimistic and confident about the medium to long term future. However, the proposed bus gates are the single largest factor that will close the doors of this iconic shop forever. The most frustrating thing about the proposal is there is absolutely no evidence or research to support the case. This is a political correctness agenda that is ignoring social and economic needs. One flimsy questionnaire with leading questions to fuel the vocal minority is not evidence borne from research.
I have travelled into Oxford from Witney for the past 15 years and any congestion is always prior to reaching the centre, in fact it can be clearly seen that once you are past the schools particularly on the Woodstock and Banbury roads the traffic flows very well. We all know that congestion disappears during the school holidays. Now picture a post-pandemic world where people who used to have to work in a city centre office are given much more flexibility to work from home. The volume of traffic will naturally decline, or rather not return. This in itself will have the biggest impact and negate the need for the bus gates. Coupled with the electric car initiative (to be applauded), the environmental factor will be more than catered for.
Since taking over, from my shop I have observed the traffic at the traffic lights on the junction of Longwall and the High Street and there is never, and I mean never, not rarely, NEVER any congestion. Very few cars come through this area already, the main traffic here is the proliferation of buses. I really do not understand why your attention is not focussed further out from the city centre where congestion is obvious to all at peak times, or rather was, even this may not be as bad in a post pandemic world.
From everything I have read there are three main reasons why the bus gates are being proposed, environmental considerations, safety for pedestrians and cyclists, trying to create an open air pavement style café and bar environment. Let’s take each of these in turn:
Environmental Considerations: a noble cause that we would all support, except the bus gates are going to have very little impact on this as there is very little traffic in these areas even in non-pandemic times. I do not see the traffic returning to anything like it was pre-pandemic as companies start to work more flexibly from home. Also, as previously stated by the time you reach the area of the proposed gates the traffic is already flowing well due to low volume. The environmental issue is also already being dealt with by the much more impactful move to electric cars and pollution charging. Whilst this will present a challenge to me personally it is not something I can reasonably argue against. As long as this is done in a measured way this will have much more impact on this than the bus gates. Also, I often wonder if canvassed whether the staunchest of environmentalists would vote for this, rather than other measures, if they were given the choice of bus gates and no High Street Shops, or a vibrant High Street but no bus gates.
Safety for pedestrians: The pavements for pedestrians are very wide and accommodating already. The Covid measures that have been put in place are an indication of how poorly the council research and implement anything meaningful and I see no reason as to why the bus gates will not be the same. The Covid measures have not delivered what they were intending to. Pedestrians completely ignore the one-way system, Council Advisers that populate the streets to advise compliance merely stand in groups just chatting, not doing their job.
Safety for cyclists: There are two major factors that increase the risk of cyclists having an accident. One is buses: the volume and attitude shown by the drivers would make me think twice about cycling in the centre of Oxford… the bus gates will only increase these chances. Secondly, honestly, the cyclists themselves: many ignore the safe cycle lanes provided, CHOOSING to ride in the road; or they ride two or three abreast blocking the traffic. At night the vast majority can bee seen to be riding without lights, therefore surely more needs to be done to encourage the less responsible cyclists to help themselves rather than introducing a draconian measure that will have no positive effect on their safety whatsoever.
Open air street cafés and bars: This just proves that Oxford City Council has absolutely no interest in revitalising the High Street into a popular attraction full of vibrant, unusual independent shops (and cafés and bars). People want to shop and then sit down and have a coffee or something to eat. Many will not come if there are no shops left to pique their interest, let alone the military style operation it will take to work out how to get into the city centre. Therefore, you will fail again to achieve what you set out to do.
If the council’s intention is to make Oxford City Centre a mix of museums, nice buildings to look at and hospitality outlets then just state that and we can all save ourselves a lot of time and money by packing up and going elsewhere NOW. Places like Witney and Woodstock already benefit because of the measures Oxford City Council have introduced over the years. People from the Cotswolds particularly choosing to visit these for shopping, eating and drinking rather than Oxford. This is due to the easily accessed mix of 30 minute, one hour and three hour free parking within a stroll’s distance of the main shopping thoroughfare.
Finally, just to be clear, all the things Phillip Scaysbrook has said about the need to have transport at our premises also applies to my business. As do his comments regarding the prospect of redundancies and cancelling of plans to increase my number of staff. I really do not see how anyone can think that the High Street will survive such an implementation. With this and the proposed barriers being re-implemented in Oriel Square I really don’t know how you expect us to run our businesses. My shop will become an island fortress built to repel intruders rather than the welcoming, easy going attraction we are striving to achieve. Alas, I don’t think you or your colleagues will care about this anyway, however, I cling to a desperate hope that you wish to preserve Oxford’s heritage of which the High Street is a key part.
I am not an expert in the ways of the council but in my view there is a need for some form of public debate where whichever members of the public are calling for these gates can put their evidence and argument and also hear the arguments of the business owners and other Oxford residents who value having a vibrant and eclectic High Street. My customers come from Cowley, Littlemore, North Oxford and other suburbs and they all complain already about how hard it is to get here. How many of these know about the bus gate proposal? I have no doubt very few, if any.