Local Dismay at Bus Route Change

2.40.16pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 9th Jun 2008

Local Liberal Democrat County Councillor Roz Smith has spoken of her residents' dismay at changes to the No. 10 bus route, which now no longer serves residents in the Florence Park area. And there was concern that the new route now means buses doing a u-turn on the busy Between Towns Road (B4495) outside the Temple Square shopping centre and right next to one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in Oxford.

Local residents, Sue Gonzalaz and Sarah Carter, handed in a petition to the Cabinet member for Transport last Thursday, and Roz spoke at the meeting to support them.

She asked the Cabinet member (Cllr Hudspeth) if he was happy with the safety audit for the u-turn on Between Towns Road, and said that local residents had observed what they considered to be potentially dangerous manoeuvres there.

Roz added, "Florence Park residents are understandably upset that they no longer have a bus service that gives them a direct link to Wood Farm, the library and the Headington hospitals. If they now have to use their cars, this can only add to the traffic pressure to this busy area. And I really question the wisdom of a new route that requires a bus to go twice through a busy traffic light junction and then a u-turn n the middle of the road next to a pedestrian crossing between two popular shopping centres!"