A wider pedestrian area with seating and planting creates an environment where people can meet with friends and socialise, or just take a break and enjoy the area between working, sightseeing, shopping, dining, or seeing shows or concerts

The scheme is provisionally set to stay in place for up to 18 months.

About the project

As one of our priorities, we are delivering new access to green space throughout Oxfordshire’s urban areas to promote wellbeing, and a greener cityscape while encouraging less reliance on motor vehicles for local trips.

Providing a social open space in Oxford’s Broad Street builds on the success of a similar project in 2021 and aligns with our aims for the county.

When Broad Meadow was introduced between July and October 2021 it drew more than 100,000 visitors with 90% of respondents to a consultation by Oxford City Council saying they would like to see the project happen again.

This new Broad Street scheme offers a larger public space for the local community, businesses and event organisers to use throughout the year for an experimental period from autumn 2022 to spring 2024.

The street is in the heart of the city centre, surrounded by historic buildings, and next to some of Oxford’s most popular streets for shopping, dining, and entertainment. The Covered Market has entrances on Broad Street as well as the High Street and Cornmarket Street.

Approval for an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) for a temporary public realm scheme of the street was given on Thursday 21 July 2022, as part of a delegated decision meeting for highways management. [Item 4, pp1-13].

As a part of the formal ETRO, there will be a consultation lasting six months to understand the impact and overall success of the scheme. This will include an online survey opening when the scheme launches. Depending on the successes and experiences of the scheme after 18 months, there is scope to consider extending the project or repeating it in future. This would involve opening it out to further public consultation to help decide and shape any future proposals.

There are more details about the scheme in our press release.

Consultation

The consultation for the Broad Street project has now closed and we are reviewing the feedback received. All feedback received in relation to the Broad Street project consultation (survey, guestbook, and submitted correspondence), together with officer monitoring and analysis, will contribute to a report that will be considered at a Cabinet Member Decision Meeting later in 2023.

The meeting will use the report as a part of considering whether the county council should extend the current Broad Street project, potentially make further improvements, or repeat it in future (subject to funding). Such changes would involve opening it out to further public consultation to help decide and shape any future proposals. The results of the survey and report to the meeting will be published on the County Council website one week ahead of the meeting taking place.

Project and work schedules

Please note the dates below are planned dates. The actual dates that works take place may occasionally be subject to minor changes depending on external circumstances such as severe weather or highway incidents.