Shameful Pact Dismisses Second Look at Queen Street

4.59.55pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 5th May 2009

Labour voted with the Conservatives today to dismiss the idea of asking the County Cabinet a second look at the Queen Street bus stop proposals. This is despite a Labour motion at Council in April asking for the exact same scheme to be deferred.

The Environment & Economy Scrutiny Committee discussed Queen Street today, after the Cabinet member's decision to press ahead with the scheme was "called in" by Liberal Democrat members. Speaking at the Committee meeting, Cllr Roz Smith, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for Transport, said:

"Many people and organisations are concerned about moving the bus stops out of Queen Street, and they do not feel listened to by the Conservative administration at County Hall. I think that we need to ask the Cabinet to take a little time to think again about the issues these individuals and groups have raised before rushing into this.

"The only real way to avoid increased congestion on St Aldates and High Street is to reduce the number of buses in total - and this is only possible when the Bus Quality Partnership is fully operating; at the moment, it is only just starting.

"This move at this time seems designed, not to help all the users and residents of the City Centre, but to actually make life more difficult for them for many months to come. Bus reliability will suffer - and we may see people switching from bus use or even worse not coming into the City Centre at all. And why introduce this interim scheme now, when stores are already struggling to attract customers in the recession?

After the meeting, Roz expressed her disappointment with the decision to rubber-stamp the Cabinet decision. "If the Committee had listened to the members of the public who came to speak to them, and responded positively to the constructive criticisms they made, this would have reflected well on the strength of the scrutiny process in Oxfordshire. As it is, scrutiny appears to have been completely taken over by political expediency in the run-up to an election. My concern all along was to reflect the views of those who have contacted me - and to make sure that they had another chance to have their say; it is a shame that Conservatives and Labour don't appear interested in listening. And what Labour were doing voting in favour of the Cabinet's plans - when they have been opposing them up to now - has me, quite frankly, stumped."