SCRAP IT!

Standard readers vote overwhelmingly against new traffic system

By Nigel Wigmore and Will Davies


HENLEY’S CONTROVERSIAL traffic scheme must go. That’s the overwhelming verdict of Henley residents in our special traffic survey to see if they want to keep the town’s controversial new traffic system.

On the last day of the poll, a total of 643 votes had been cast, including 253 online, resulting in 85 per cent voting against the scheme. From day one of the poll, when it was launched on August 10th, it quickly became clear that most people did not want the scheme to stay.

Town councillor Barry Wood told the Standard: “Oxfordshire County Council would be crazy to disregard these figures. They show a huge amount of dissatisfaction with the scheme.”

Cllr. Wood added: “The way ahead now is to retain what is good in the system and get rid of what is bad. The most important aspect of this now is to improve air quality.”

In a letter to the Standard, Cllr. Wood had attacked South Oxfordshire District Council for only measuring levels of nitrogen dioxide in the town when traffic emissions include ‘amongst others, sulphur dioxide, particulates and carcinogens’, which were ‘even more damaging to human health than nitrogen dioxide’.

In a heated debate during a full meeting of Henley Town Council on Tuesday, Cllr. Peter Skolar said: “It was my election promise to get rid of the scheme. But we can’t simply reverse it — going back to the status quo is simply not an option.

“Three elderly ladies have been killed at the junction with Duke Street and Hart Street. If we go back to two lanes to speed up the traffic, and as a consequence have a fourth death there, it will be on all our consciences as councillors.

“The ITS (Integrated Transport Strategy) has succeeded in keeping traffic out of Henley, which is exactly what it was designed to do.

“But it needs to be modified, and the one single item which will reduce levels of pollution by as much as ten per cent would be a ban on HGVs through the town. The removal of HGVs would have a much more significant effect than anything the ITS can do.”

Cllr. Skolar said he has also requested both a traffic count from the county council and an annual mean figure for pollution levels in the town.

Cllr. Wood said: “As a council, we must come to a conclusion regarding the scheme.”

A vote was carried to hold a special ITS council meeting.

Responding to the Standard poll, Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Cllr. Ian Hudspeth, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “We listened to what people said they wanted in Henley’s town referendum and went ahead and implemented the scheme.

“Traffic levels all over England are rising and towns similar to Henley are facing the same kinds of issues. The scheme was not aimed at meeting this increasing demand but at making the best use of the existing road network within the town.”