Report from the Central Oxfordshire Movement and Place Framework

Following the recent publication of the draft Central Oxfordshire Movement and Place Framework (COMPF) report Oxfordshire County Council invited representatives from North Oxford residents’ groups and community organisations to a presentation of the report on the evening of Wednesday 19 March at the North Oxford Community Centre. Approximately fifty representatives attended. Maggie Black and Helena Webster attended for WMRA.

The project team clarified that the aims of the time-limited COMPF project were to identify areas in the City Centre and North Oxford that might become more useable through redesigning the public realm.

The spaces identified in the City Centre included re-designing Magdalen Street, making the area around Martyr’s Memorial more pedestrian friendly, and stopping coaches from parking outside the Ashmolean Museum. Closer to home there were proposals for re-designing the North Parade and Little Clarendon Street streetscape, upgrading the canal path and remodelling the carridgeway of the Summertown shopping area.

The presentation included some engaging visualisations of these ‘blue sky’ projects.

The audience was generally supportive of the locations identified for improvement but views were mixed about the designs presented. There was a consensus that coach parking needed to be addressed urgently. WMRA pointed out that the roads connecting Walton Street/Kingston Road and the Woodstock Road continued to suffer from over use by non-resident traffic and that further measures to reduce the through traffic use would be welcome.

Importantly, the officers clarified that the goals of the project were to raise public aspirations for the city’s streetscape and public spaces. They were also keen to stress that the visulisation did not represent planned projects and that there was currently no funding stream. However, the officers suggested that if the individual projects gained public support they could usefully inform future bids for government funding.

The final report is due to be published in the next month.

You can see the full draft report at: https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/compf

Come and Meet your Neighbours!

We will be holding a Meet Your Neighbours event next week. We hope you will join us:

When: Wednesday 2nd April 2025
Where: The Gardeners Arms, Plantation Rd
What time: From 5.30pm

with best wishes

WMRA Committee