Normas particulares

When determining planning applications, the City Council will seek to reduce the number of private non-residential parking spaces, particularly in the Transport Central Area and Transport District Areas, when they are not required for operational reasons.

Where the City Council considers an existing site to be a major traffic generator, planning permission will not be granted for further provision of private non-residential off-street parking.

Air Quality Management Area Local authorities are required to establish Air Quality

Management Areas (AQMA’s) to improve air quality where they do not expect air quality objectives to be met.

The planning system has a role to play in the protection of air quality by ensuring that land use decisions do not adversely affect the air quality in the AQMA, or in other areas where air quality objectives are unlikely to be met. A development will be

assessed against its direct effect on air quality, and also the effect of the traffic it generates. Some schemes will in themselves reduce the air quality in the central area, but will lead to an overall improvement.

6

Local Transport Plans and Strategies

The aim of the City Council's transport policy is to reduce the need to travel, particularly by private car, and to give people greater choice in the way they travel by walking, cycling and public transport. To achieve this, proposed development must be appropriate to its location and it must be recognised that some locations are more suitable for some land uses than others. Furthermore, measures should be implemented that directly improve travel by sustainable modes of transport and control private car use.

Development proposals will be carefully considered for their impact on the transport infrastructure.

Section 5 of the Core Strategy states that the Council will seek to ensure the impact of any new development is fully mitigated, principally through demand management. Policy CS13 requires that a Transport Assessment and comprehensive Travel Plan must accompany all major development proposals. Core Strategy Policy CS17 states that planning permission for new development will only be granted if it is supported by appropriate infrastructure at a timely stage. Developer contributions will be sought where needs arise as a result of new development.

6.2 Oxfordshire LTP 2006-2011

Oxfordshire County Council adopted its second Local Transport Plan (LTP) in 2006 to cover the period from April 2006 to March 2011. The Plan had five overarching objectives for improving transport in the county:

 Tackling congestion  Delivering accessibility  Safer roads

 Better air quality

 Improving the street environment

An Action Plan for the city centre was agreed by the City and County Councils in 2006. The Action Plan introduced a target for air quality within the Local Transport Plan (LTP), based on the achievement of the annual mean objective for nitrogen dioxide of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre. The Action Plan highlighted that

The main elements of the Plan are as follows:

Table 6.1 Key elements of 2006 AQAP

High impact on air quality Medium impact on air quality

Low impact on air quality

Low emission zone Action to stop idling vehicles

Roadside testing of emissions

Bus gate enforcement Review of commercial delivery times

Bus quality partnership

Improved phasing of traffic lights on city centre bus priority route and key radial routes

Improved bus priority Advanced bus ticketing

Residents’/controlled parking zones

Review of city centre parking policy

High Street Improvement School and workplace travel plans

Cycling and Walking improvements in and on approaches to city centre

Taxi Quality Partnership

The monitoring for Oxford has shown a decrease in the level of NO2 (up to 2009)

probably as a result of the continuing introduction of newer, less polluting buses, but remains significantly above the objective level of 40 μg/m3

. Changes in locations of bus stops have resulted in increases in monitored levels in St Aldate’s during 2010. The trend in annual mean NO2 monitored in central Oxford is shown in Figures 2.3

and 2.4.

Bus Gate Enforcement was initiated from February 2007 (some headline figures for the impact of the enforcement):-

From 2006 to 2007:-

 All motorised traffic (inc buses) has decreased by 25%

 The number of Cars passing through the gate has decreased by 60%  The number of Good vehicles passing through the gate has decreased by

35%.

In March 2008 Oxford City Council began to enforce a ban on vehicles keeping their engines running while stationary in the city centre.

During April 2009 the City Council supported by the County Council, resolved to create a Low Emission Zone, based upon a Euro5 Emission Standard for Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) to be attained registered local bus services operating in central Oxford

by 2014. The Traffic Commissioner confirmed the TRC to enforce this standard in March 2013.

It was reported in the 2010 Progress Report that:-

The County Council’s Transform Oxford plans are expected to deliver a better environment for pedestrians and people using public transport. Planned to go live in autumn 2010, the new sustainable bus network will deliver:-

 £10million investment in new state-of-the-art low emission buses.

 A new multi-operator integrated smartcard ticketing system, allowing passengers to use either company’s services with the same ticket.

 Convenient, turn-up-and-go high-frequency bus services on the city’s four key corridors

 An efficient, accessible and co-ordinated package of services

 More seats using fewer buses by switching to high-quality double-decker vehicles

 Better information and faster boarding for bus passengers

This programme was launched in August 2011.

The first stage of Transform Oxford was in place during the summer of 2009, the work involved:

 relocating bus stops from Queen Street to nearby streets

 reducing the number of buses passing through Queen Street by around one third

 creating more space for pedestrians

 resurfacing pavements and the road

 replacing street furniture - benches, cycle racks etc

This process has altered the balance of buses on key streets on the bus priority route in central Oxford, with consequent changes to the levels of emissions and resultant air quality on key streets. Notably Queen Street, a busy pedestrian street, has shown a significant decrease, whilst there has been an increase in St Aldate’s.

Queen Street before changes

Average annual mean for nitrogen dioxide 2006-8: (86 microgrammes per cubic metre)

Oxford has one of the highest levels of bus use in the UK, with around 50 per cent of all journeys in and around the city being made by bus. As well as significantly

improving the travelling experience for existing bus users, the new package of

improvements will provide scope for more people to switch from car to bus, delivering safer, cleaner and less congested streets around Oxford.

Agreed objectives for Local Transport Plan 3 (LTP3) 2011-2030

 Improve the condition of local roads, footways and cycleways, including resilience to climate change

 Reduce congestion

 Reduce casualties and the dangers associated with travel  Improve accessibility to work, education and services  Secure infrastructure and services to support development  Reduce carbon emissions from transport

 Improve air quality, reduce other environmental impacts and enhance the street environment

 Develop and increase the use of high quality, welcoming public transport  Develop and increase cycling and walking for local journeys, recreation and

health

These objectives were given a set level of priority within each of the different

settlement types in Oxfordshire, as agreed by the Cabinet in their review of the LTP3 objectives. The objectives with high priority for each of the individual settlement types are listed below:

Oxford

 Reduce congestion

 Develop and increase the use of high quality, welcoming public transport  Develop and increase cycling and walking for local journeys, recreation and

7

Climate Change Strategies

The following text is copied from the City Council’s web page on Climate