People driving into Oxford have been told that if they’re in a car, they are “part of the problem” of the city’s congestion and that they need to take ownership of the issue – by a councillor in charge of the county’s highways.
Like so many other towns and cities throughout the country, Oxford experiences horrendous congestion at peak times, with traffic regularly queueing from the city centre to beyond the ring road.
But despite park and rides located at key approaches to the city, many commuters drive all the way into the centre, resulting in long tailbacks and holding up buses.

In the foreword to Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan, transport secretary Grant Shapps acknowledges that, “we cannot, of course, simply rely on the electrification of road transport, or believe that zero emission cars and lorries will solve all our problems, particularly for meeting our medium-term carbon reduction targets to 2035.”
This scheme will offer nothing in terms of improved accessibility for local communities either side of the Thames

21 September 2021
The No Place Left Behind: the Commission into Community Prosperity and Placemaking has launched its new report at the House of Commons. Toby Lloyd, former Head of Policy at Shelter and Housing Adviser to the Prime Minister, chairs the Commission.

The Commission seeks to identify and develop policy and practice that enables regenerative development in ‘left behind places’. It aims to ensure that the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda is deliverable and meaningful for those who live and work in these places. The commission’s mantra is that no place should be left behind

Between 1934 and 1942, Britain’s Ministry of Transport paid local authorities to install cycle tracks. As seen and heard on the BBC, more than 100 or so schemes were built, resulting in perhaps as many as 500 miles of cycle tracks, some of them protected with curbs. The great majority were built next to the new bypasses of the era; some more were built on trunk roads through residential areas. A successful Kickstarter campaign in May 2017 enabled us to start researching some of these cycleways, and now in 2021, thanks to support from the Department for Transport and Sustrans, we’re in the process of rescuing some of them.

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT

Even though the Kickstarter campaign is no longer live you’re still able in 2021 to get the same emails and reports and other benefits as the original backers. This extension was created after people got in touch after the campaign ended asking how to get involved. 

Peter Walker and Niamh McIntyre
The number of cycling trips made by women in England rose by more than 50% in 2020, official statistics show, as the quieter roads of lockdown seemingly helped to tempt a demographic known to be more wary of traffic danger on to their bikes.
While for men there was a 12% overall rise in the average number of cycle “stages” – rides that formed part of a greater journey – made per person in 2020 compared with the year before, for women the increase was 56%, Department for Transport (DfT) statistics show.
Overall, men still cycled more on average over the year, as has long been the case. However, while in 2019 men cycled almost three times as many stages as women, in 2020 this fell to twice as many.

Josephine Moulds
Italy could be forced to pay millions of pounds in damages to a UK oil company after banning new drilling near its coast.
The case has sparked outrage at the secretive international tribunals at which fossil fuel companies can sue governments for passing laws to protect the environment – amid fears that such cases are slowing down action on the climate crisis. It is also fuelling concern that the UK is particularly exposed to the risk of oil firms suing to prevent green policies, potentially hampering climate action.
Rockhopper Exploration, based in Salisbury, Wiltshire, bought a licence to drill for oil off Italy’s Adriatic coast in 2014. There had already been a wave of opposition to the project, with protests that drew tens of thousands of people. Within two years, the campaign won over the Italian parliament, which imposed a ban on oil and gas projects within 12 nautical miles of the Italian coast.

Aubrey Allegretti

A fifth of London’s schools are now susceptible to flooding and millions of people living in the capital are at “high risk” of suffering from the effects of the climate crisis, according to analysis from City Hall, as Sadiq Khan warns time is running out to tackle the issue.
In a speech on Thursday, the London mayor is due to pile pressure on the UK government to ensure bold action is taken when it hosts world leaders for Cop26 in Glasgow in two months’ time, and add that without a significant commitment there will be “catastrophic” impacts on the environment and air quality.
The outcome of the UN conference will “determine whether we are going to avert the worst consequences of climate change, which could be devastating”, Khan is expected to say, alongside the launch of a public awareness campaign designed to encourage residents, communities and businesses in London to do their bit.

The idea of tolls for some drivers on two of Wales’ busiest stretches of road has been raised by Welsh government.

It asked for the public’s views in a survey about some motorists paying to use parts of the M4 motorway and A470 in a bid to tackle air pollution.
The survey asked for views on tolls for older cars on the M4 around Newport, Wales’ busiest stretch of motorway, and the A470 around Pontypridd.
But the survey said a “clean air zone” is not proposed “at this stage”.
An air pollution expert said any suggestion would be unlike any other air pollution measure in the UK, which normally charges motorists for driving into cities rather on stretches of road.
The Welsh government has declared a climate emergency and has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
The government survey asked drivers if their commuting or travelling habits would change if some vehicles had to pay to use those stretches of road.