Businesses criticise congestion charge data release

Oxford businesses say Oxfordshire County Council has not released the footfall and spending data it said it would use to track the city’s temporary congestion charge. (oxfordmail.co.uk) The £5-a-day charge for cars without permits began on 29 October 2025 at six Oxford roads, with cameras operating daily on four routes and at peak hours on Marston Ferry Road and Hollow Way. The council says the scheme is meant to cut traffic while Botley Road stays shut and the traffic-filter trial is delayed. (oxfordshire.gov.uk; oxfordshire.gov.uk) County Hall has published monthly monitoring pages for November 2025 through February 2026, but those pages list traffic flows, journey times, park-and-ride use, permit data and income, with some datasets still unavailable. The November page says the council is comparing one month with the same month a year earlier and warns that “no firm conclusions” can be drawn from such a short period. (oxfordshire.gov.uk; oxfordshire.gov.uk) That gap has become the fight. Traders told the Oxford Mail they were promised data on visitor numbers and spending, and said they felt “fobbed off” when those figures were not released alongside the transport updates. (oxfordmail.co.uk) The council has used the published transport data to argue the scheme is working. In updates issued on 24 February and 25 March 2026, it said January and February monitoring showed faster bus journeys on key routes, higher park-and-ride use and improved city-centre traffic, while some outer roads carried more traffic. (oxfordshire.gov.uk; oxfordshire.gov.uk) The county also said bus use has risen since the charge started. Data from Go-Ahead, owner of Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, showed overall passenger numbers were about 8% higher year on year, with roughly one-third of that increase on park-and-ride services. (oxfordshire.gov.uk) Business owners have been warning about the other side of the ledger since before the launch. On 22 October 2025, traders told the Oxford Mail they feared the charge would deter Christmas shoppers, and on 5 November some reported revenue drops of more than 50% compared with the same period a year earlier. (oxfordmail.co.uk; oxfordmail.co.uk) The dispute now is less about whether the charge changed traffic than whether Oxford’s councils will publish enough economic evidence to show what it did to shops. Until that dataset appears, the council’s case rests mainly on cleaner-air and transport measures, and traders’ case rests mainly on what they say they are seeing at the till. (oxfordshire.gov.uk; oxfordmail.co.uk; oxfordshire.gov.uk)