The closure of the Witney High Street to private vehicles by the Lib Dem, Labour, and Green coalition at Oxfordshire County Council has left the town divided on whether it's a good or bad thing. Their decision to keep the closure permanent has also left our High Street in limbo with the county council sitting on just under £2 million of funding that is supposed to be earmarked towards improving the town centre.
We repeatedly keep pressing the county council on when this money will be spent and when local residents and businesses can feed into the development of the strategy for improving the town centre. As Conservatives, we will continue to hold the coalition to account, ensuring that all residents have a voice so that we all get to take part in consultations and community engagement meetings.
At Witney Town Council earlier this month a motion was put forward by my Conservative colleague Cllr Darren Thomas supported by myself calling on the leader of the town council to write to the leader of Oxfordshire County Council calling for them to set out dates for a fully accessible, open public meeting about the plans for the High Street that will enable highway planners to set out fully costed plans to transform our High Street for the better.
I'm pleased this motion was supported by the town council and we now wait to hear from the county council about what will happen to our high street and the funding. We need the whole community to have a voice and come together so that everyone has a say on the future of Witney High Street. We don’t need Top-Down ideas from planners that live outside of our County, we need to hear what everyone thinks and take a strong bottom-up approach, where you in the community get to have your say.
We have a lovely town centre with a vibrant local economy supported by the free parking policy the previous Conservative administration at West Oxfordshire District Council implemented.
Witney residents should be reassured that your local Conservative team are working hard to make sure we get the best deal possible for improving our high street and that we continue to hold these Lib Dem, Labour, Green council coalitions to account.
In the meantime, I would encourage people to continue to support our brilliant hardworking independent businesses over this festive period and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.