To Cllr Andrew Gant
Cabinet Member for Transport Management
c/o County Hall, New Road, Oxford, OX1 1ND

Sent by email

25 September 2025

Dear Cllr Andrew Gant,

We are writing in response to the Open Letter you published earlier this week. The contents of your letter are very surprising. 

You claim that monies raised from the Congestion Charge will not be predominantly used to make Park and Ride free for residents from outside Oxford. Yet communications from your own Council Leader make clear your intention to spend up to £1 million on free Park and Ride. 

If pressure from us and Oxford residents means you now might spend some of any remainder on transport within Oxford, we welcome this change of heart – but the fundamental point remains that most of the money will be spent on people from outside Oxford. 

You suggest that the County Council’s intention to introduce a Congestion Charge was known to all. Yet the sections you quote in your letter actually prove the point – there was no mention of such a charge, and most certainly not from the Lib Dems in the run-up to the last local elections.

You state that residents will not have to pay a Congestion Charge to get around their own community. Yet the County Council’s own modelling shows that 1 in every 2 journeys in the Hollow Way area will attract a charge, and that you are relying on over 10,000 Oxford residents switching their car journeys to cycling without funding any extra infrastructure improvements to make cycling easier and safer.

Finally, we have been clear that abuse within discussions on local transport is unacceptable, and have condemned that to which you have been subject. Yet unfortunately in your letter you bizarrely accuse us of wanting to induce injuries to pedestrians and prevent new crossings by opposing your scheme. You know these claims are untrue and we are therefore disappointed to see them in your letter.

Our concerns are based on listening to local residents. There is huge local disquiet about the division that has been produced by different travel schemes, especially when these have been imposed from outside. This concern transcends whether people are in favour of more or less active travel. The only way to heal these divisions is for local people to be listened to. 

We will continue to argue for this as sadly the County Council so far has not been listening to local communities when it comes to this scheme. 

Yours Sincerely,

Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East 

Liz Brighouse, Leader of the County Labour & Co-operative Group

Susan Brown, Leader of the City Labour Group