Late August 2026

Local Open Gardens - Saturday 26th September

If you would like to visit three beautiful gardens on Plantation and Leckford Roads, they are opening to the public from 1.30pm to 5.30 pm on 26th September.

Entrance fee is £4 for one garden or £10 for all three.

There are Teas, cakes, cut flowers and plants for sale and proceeds will go to the Agnes Smith Advice Centre which provides advice on welfare benefits, housing and debt management in and around Blackbird Leys.

The gardens are all very different, each special in their own way:

• 50 Plantation Road - three 'rooms' with unusual trees, lots of pots and a water feature
• 38 Leckford Road - a walled garden with varying levels of shade and many uncommon plants and mature trees
• 41 Leckford Road - exquisitely designed garden for entertaining and relaxing

Oxford's Traffic Filters Trial goes live on 28th September after Botley Road finally reopens

Oxford’s temporary Congestion Charge will be replaced by the Traffic Filter trial on Monday 28 September. This will follow the planned reopening of Botley Road on 20 September.

The scheme will work in a similar way to the temporary Congestion Charge. The key difference is that people will not be able to pay a daily £5 charge as you can at the moment to go through a filter. Cars will need a permit to travel past the cameras.

If you currently hold an Oxford Resident's Permit for the temporary Congestion Charge scheme then this will automatically transfer to become a Traffic Filters permit on 28th September.

Like the CongestionCharge permit,Traffic Filters permits will give 100 days per year when you can drive through the filters. The permit usage counter will reset to zero on 28th September so from that date you will receive the full annual allowance of 100 day passes.

If your temporary Congestion Charge permit still has any unused days when the traffic filters trial starts, they will NOT be carried over to the new scheme.

If you don’t want us to transfer your Congestion Charge permit to a Traffic Filter permit, email: ccharge@oxfordshire.gov.uk by 11 September 2026 to let them know.

The trial will last up to 18 months. A Public Consultation on the scheme will open on 28th September. The location of the cameras is the same as those for the Congestion Charge:

More information about the traffic filters trial is available on the council website.

Road works update

The Walton Street end of Adelaide St will be closed to vehicle traffic from Monday 17 August to 31 January 2027, initially for the continuing SSEN works and then for OCC work related to the development behind 106 Walton Street. There should still be pedestrian access along Adelaide Street.