OXFORD DEVELOPMENT PLAN (Hansard, 26 January 1966)

§ 62. Mr. CHRISTOPHER WOODHOUSE
To ask the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether he has completed his consideration of the Oxford Development Plan; and whether he will make a statement.

§ The Minister of Housing and Local Government (Mr. Richard Crossman)
With permission, I will now answer Question No. 62. I apologise in advance for the length of the Answer.
Yes, Sir. I am today sending to the Oxford City Council the list of modifications I propose to make.
Hon. Members will recall that in 1962, following an inquiry at large into the question of relief roads for Oxford, my predecessor reached the conclusion that an inner relief road through Christ Church Meadow was the right solution, and invited the city council to amend its development plan accordingly. This it did; and one of my inspectors has conducted an inquiry into its proposals.
At that inquiry, there was strong opposition to the council's road proposals, and, in particular, to the Meadow section of the relief road. It was argued that there should be a complete reassessment of the Oxford road problems and that the effect of traffic restrictions in the centre should be examined before the alignment of the relief road was settled.
My inspector accepted these criticisms, and recommended that the whole plan be rejected and sent back to the city for further study.
I can see the force of the arguments. But the longer I reflected on my inspector's report, the more clearly I realised how disastrous it would be to accept a purely negative conclusion which would set the city back to the beginning of its work and leave nothing to stand against the rising tide of traffic chaos in Oxford.
Moreover, I could not accept my inspector's appraisal that, given restriction on through traffic in the city centre, it could well be found—and here I quote his actual words—that a relief road is not required at all, or, if it is required, that its main function will be to cater for 218 through traffic. Indeed, I have little reason to doubt that further examination will confirm the need for one, and may well show that the Meadow line is still the most efficient traffic route. And if it did, I would not accept the view put forward by so many objectors at the inquiry that the preservation of Christ Church Meadow must override all other considerations.
I determined, therefore, to find a practicable interim way between acceptance of the city council's plan and the total rejection recommended by my inspector; and I am proposing to approve, with minor modifications, the council's proposals for the redevelopment of St. Ebbe's, thus allowing the urgent work to go forward. I am satisfied that this can be done without prejudicing any likely solution to the relief road problem; and that it will carry with it some incidental relief to the traffic congestion at Carfax and in the High.
On the other hand, I propose to delete from the town map the relief road scheme; and to invite the city council to appoint consultants to make a comparative examination of possible routes for the relief road across the Meadow and further south, their cost and effect on property, and the extent and nature of the schemes of traffic and environmental management each will entail. One of the main objects will be to show how the disturbance caused by motor traffic in the High and the university precinct can be reduced to acceptable levels.
In short, what I am now proposing will enable the council to press on with its plans for immediate redevelopment, while allowing more time for the preparation of a final and comprehensive road and traffic plan for Oxford.
I have consulted my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport, who is in complete agreement with the proposals I am making.

§ Mr. Woodhouse
While recognising that the Minister's decision is bound to dissatisfy some people, and while asking him to accept that his somewhat intricate reply will need a certain amount of study before one can give a considered reaction to it, may I at least thank him for carrying this matter one stage nearer to a definite conclusion.
219 Is the Minister prepared to consider exceptional measures for financing the development of Oxford, as this is a matter of concern not only to the citizens of Oxford but to very large numbers of people elsewhere in the country and, indeed, overseas?

§ Mr. Crossman
I thank the hon. Member for his cautiously positive attitude to my complex statement. As to special financial measures for Oxford, I think that the question whether Oxford should be treated in that category would come within consideration of my statement of a few days ago concerning historic towns.

§ Mr. Driberg
When my right hon. Friend uses the phrase "across the Meadow and further south", how much further south does he envisage the possible alternatives? Why is it completely impracticable to bar through traffic from the centre of Oxford?

§ Mr. Crossman
There is nothing in my statement to indicate that it is completely impracticable. On the contrary, I am suggesting that these traffic considerations should he considered in the surveys. As for the definition of "further south", I am, naturally, unwilling to say anything about the terms of reference of the consultations, because this is something for Oxford City to do in co-operation with me and I want to agree the terms of reference with the council. I want them to be perfectly free to decide whether there is a real alternative. That means stretching it as wide as anybody likes.
We must face the fact that it is possible to see the situation in a post-Buchanan frame of mind. Views which were made clear before the Buchanan Report may be modified in a post-Buchanan atmosphere. That is really the justification of the further inquiry. I assure the hon. Member that there will be no limitation on searches for routes. On the other hand, we must consider practicability and cost as well as purely amenity considerations.

§ Mr. Robert Cooke
Will the Minister study the traffic problems in Oxford when all the shops are closed—on, I believe, a Thursday afternoon? Perhaps he could visit the city and see it then, when I think that his view might he slightly different. Will he, perhaps, take one last 220 look at Christ Church Meadow in the springtime?

§ Mr. Crossman
I do not know that anything I did could possibly cause the total destruction of Christ Church Meadow, nor, I think, does my proposal. I would not think that the right time to consider Oxford's traffic problems was when the shops were closed. Surely, the best time to go is when the shops are open and one can really see the traffic problem.

§ Mr. Hogg
While I am sure that there will be a fairly general welcome for the St. Ebbe's decision, on which the Minister has today made his announcement, may I ask whether he can indicate the time scale involved in his further consultations? To my recollection, this proposal has been hanging fire since 1942, when I had already been three years the Member there.

§ Mr. Crossman
I regret to say that the right hon. and learned Gentleman underestimates the delay. When I was leading the Labour Group on the Oxford City Council, I was a member of one of the early, but not the first, committees to discuss Oxford's road problems; and if my advice had been taken many millions of pounds would have been saved. It is, therefore, a good long time.
The time scale is a matter on which the right hon. and learned Gentleman would, perhaps, put a question to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport. I suggest, however, that it has been the disregard of realistic transport priorities in planning which has caused a great deal of the confusion. I can, I think, say that there is plenty of time in terms of the priorities in transport for a further consideration of the route of the inner relief road in Oxford.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. We must get on.