Consultation opens on first 'quiet lane' trial

A public consultation on Oxfordshire's first "quiet lane" trial has been opened "for at least six months".

A gate has been installed at the Bayswater Road end of Shepherd's Pit Lane in Stanton St John, just outside Oxford, aiming to create "safer and more attractive routes for people walking, wheeling, cycling and horse riding, by reducing the impact of motor traffic," said the county council.

Access is maintained for residents, farmers, landowners, businesses and emergency services, with other through-traffic routed along the B4027 Wheatley Road and Bayswater Road.

The council's transport boss Gareth Epps called it "an opportunity to see how a 'fully filtered' quiet lane works in practice".

Shepherd's Pit Lane is included in the council's new countywide quiet lanes policy and pilot programme, approved in May.

It is included in a scheme of ten "experimental" orders, with proposals for the other nine roads including streets in Blackthorn, Fawler, Towersey, Goring, Kennington, and Aston Rowant.

The county council said it continued to assess applications before confirming which pilot sites would go ahead.

The gate at Stanton St John was installed after an experimental traffic regulation order came into force on 21 September.

The scheme has been met with mixed reactions, despite a majority of supportive responses to a public consultation.

The overall plans involve a set of partial road closures to traffic using gates or bollards and the local authority said it would monitor the scheme and gather evidence throughout the trial, including consultation feedback and monitoring data.

At the end of the experimental period, Epps will make a public decision on whether the measures should remain in place, be amended or removed.

"The Shepherd's Pit Lane quiet lane was developed following local concerns about road safety and through engagement with the local community," he said.

"It will now be trialled using the same locally led and evidence-based approach that will be applied to future quiet lane schemes across Oxfordshire."

The council said the consultation "will run for at least six months with the trial set to run for at least a year".