Oxford vicar supports parishioners around Botley Road works

BBC News

8 hours ago

A vicar has created a video and has asked the Bishop of Oxford to raise awareness of the negative impact that a major city road closure is having on residents.The Reverend Christopher Woods, vicar of two Oxford churches, said many of his parishioners on Abbey Road, Cripley Road and Cripley Place have been affected by roads resurfacing works to turn the streets into bus turning circles.This is due to the £231m Network Railway project to expand Oxford station, which closed the Botley Road to the city centre in April 2023 and is expected to reopen in August 2026.Network Rail apologised for "the ongoing inconvenience", adding it continued to "regularly communicate with those affected".
Fr Woods's video starts at St Thomas the Martyr Church, which he serves and which is located close to the rail station.He goes to Cripley Road, where his video shows maintenance trucks behind barriers all along the road. "Some of the residents and a couple of my parishioners who live there have become very concerned and very worried about the impact not only on their properties but also on their own mental health and their wellbeing," he said in an interview for the BBC.He said the excavation and resurfacing work added an "extra layer of complexity".
Fr Woods said that on the most recent public meeting at West Oxford Community Centre a Network Rail representative had explained that "they had a window of opportunity to do the work and they thought it was best to do it then"."So there wasn't an awful lot of time for them to give notice, but at the same time there was never enough notice given for people to move their cars or to make other arrangements for transport," he said.He added that another "tension point" had been that "the emergency email address, which apparently has been set up for residents to use, is never answered".In a statement, Network Rail said they "regularly communicate with those affected by our work and welcome suggestions on how we can lessen the impact at the community sessions" via the feedback email.The railway scheme has been through several delays, which have also affected local trade.
Fr Woods visited the Venerable Dr Joy Tetley, a retired resident of Cripley Road of 17 years.She said the quiet residential roads were now "bearing the load of many buses, using them 24/7 as an extended turning circle". "How this can have been allowed defeats me," she told the BBC, adding that "no proper impact or risk assessment has been done in advance of it"."We are an eclectic mix of residents, including a fair number of families with children and some very vulnerable folk who need regular visits from carers, who now have to hope against hope that there will be parking space available (our parking spaces have been severely limited to allow for the needs of the buses)."She described herself as "increasingly unsteady upon my pins and since the buses arrived I have not dared to venture out alone"."We thought we were engaging in advance of all this in serious discussion, not to say negotiation with those authorities."Dr Tetley said she suspected that if residents had been "more savvy and less trusting from the outset, perhaps making more noise and even going down the legal route of a judicial review, things might have turned out differently".
Fr Woods said he had spoken to the Bishop of Oxford, who sits in the House of Lords, and he had agreed to speak to rail minister Lord Hendy "to raise awareness and to ask for some assurances".Fr Woods added he would also like to see a public inquiry into the matter."We've had explanations, we've had feedback from those in the know and in authority, but I think eventually, some lessons need to be learned as to how not to deal with these kinds of issues again," he said."I know it's a very complex structural project ... but I think sometimes residents feel that they're an add-on, an extra, that they don't actually matter."
A Network Rail spokesperson said they understand the frustration of residents and businesses and "appreciate their concerns". "We established a working group made of residents, councillors, bus companies and others to look into the concerns raised around the bus routes, and held a public meeting to discuss the issue last week."The spokesperson added that as part of the preferred route for the buses "we've provided a range of mitigations including resurfacing Abbey Road, Cripley Place and sections of Cripley Road, as well as instigating speed restrictions for buses"."We continue to engage with the local community via the weekly Oxfordshire Connect newsletter, our Facebook page and our monthly sessions for residents and businesses."
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