Oxfordshire County Council has been slammed as "deceptive" after it knew for two months the reopening of a major city road was "highly unlikely" but did not communicate this to businesses or householders.
The authority is "working closely" with Network Rail on ongoing construction around a stretch of Botley Road near Oxford Station.
Related works, which have resulted in the road being shut off to motorists into and out of the city, were scheduled to finish in October but an announcement on Thursday morning last week said this would no longer happen as planned.
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The announcement signified the third delay by the company on the project.
It means the proceeding of a controversial county council traffic filters trial - which will result in six city roads being blocked off to private cars - is now "in question" as the council had planned to implement this in November after works were complete.
Highways chief Andrew Gant told the BBC he was "absolutely gobsmacked" by the delay as "Network Rail have given us a commitment to a time scale and allowed us to go out, make the necessary arrangements, tell people what to expect to deal with the consequences of this massive disruption, and then not stuck to it".
We asked Network Rail when exactly the council knew about the delay.
A spokesman said: “In the second week of May, we advised the council that it was highly unlikely we would be unable to reopen the road in the autumn as planned owing to the complex utilities, and that the bridge replacement would not be taking place in July.
“Multiple meetings and briefings have taken place since to keep our stakeholders up to date with the options being considered.
“On July 1, we informed the council confidentially due to pre-election restrictions that there was no possibility of reopening the road as planned."
Network Rail added that as a Government-funded body, along with other public bodies, it was "restricted in what information it can provide to the public in the run-up to elections".
Independent Oxford Alliance councillor David Henwood said of the county council: "Sitting on that critical information is unbelievable.
"The level of deception this man (Mr Gant) has is unbelievable.
"People have had enough of Mr Gant.
"A lot of the traders are really upset that the information hasn’t been forthcoming or accurate – it is simply not good enough – we must as a council take responsibility for this."
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Conservative county councillor Liam Walker said: "It’s disgraceful how the cabinet member for highways has managed this really poor relationship with Network Rail.
"Local residents and businesses continue to suffer as a result of this delayed project and the council appears to just shrug their shoulders and blame Network Rail."
An Oxfordshire County Council spokesman said: "While we were aware in advance of potential delays, what is still unclear is how Network Rail plans to proceed with the project and what this means for Botley Road.
"As a result, work on previously approved traffic schemes has been taking place to prepare for all eventualities."
The news comes as the county council painted sections of city roads red in preparation for the traffic filters trial just before the announcement came to light.
We asked the council for their reasoning behind this but the response was unclear.
A spokesman said: "This work is taking place now as it was planned and instructed before Network Rail’s announcement on Wednesday, in anticipation of the start of the trial in November. The November start date is now in question."
A Network Rail spokesman said: “We engage with key stakeholders throughout the planning and delivery of every major project and, clearly, we needed to inform the council about the potential delay to the bridge replacement and road reopening. We continue to look at options for moving this major investment in Oxford forward.
“In terms of informing the public, this is a Network Rail project, so we lead on communications and we publicly announced confirmation of the delay after restrictions imposed by the General Election were lifted.”
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About the author
Noor is the Local Democracy Reporter for Oxfordshire who covers political stories from across the county.
She began working as a journalist in Oxford in September 2023 having graduated from the University of Oxford.
Noor was trained at the News Associates journalism school and can be found on X through the handle @NoorJQurashi
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