Council leader rejects legal action in road row

A call for legal action against Network Rail due to the ongoing closure of a major road in Oxford has been rejected.

Botley Road has been closed since April 2023 due to a project to upgrade Oxford station, which has faced numerous delays.

Green councillor Lois Muddiman submitted a written question to Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, asking if she would consider taking legal action.

Ms Brown said while she sympathised with businesses and residents, the council was unable to take legal action against Network Rail on behalf of third parties.

Rail Minister Lord Hendy announced that Botley Road, one of the four major routes into Oxford, would continue to be closed until August 2026 in his visit to the city on Friday.

Ms Muddiman submitted a written question to Ms Brown, hoping to gain compensation for those affected, particularly businesses in west Oxford, as well as the elderly and vulnerable.

Ms Muddiman also put forward a motion calling for a public inquiry, but there was not enough time to debate it at the meeting.

She told the BBC afterwards that the Green group would meet to discuss the idea of the council taking legal action against Network Rail in its own right, and bring it before the next full council meeting in February.

Julian Le Vay, who leads community group West Oxford Access and authored a report on behalf of locals affected by the scheme, addressed councillors later in the meeting in support of the calls for compensation.

He said: "Some of us in west Oxford have suffered exclusion from our own city, unbearable intrusion of works and traffic, including piling work all night 40m from peoples' bedrooms, and continuing uncertainty from one week to another, as the institutionally incompetent Network Rail constantly miss their own deadlines and change their plans.

"And no one has listened to us, no one has cared what is happening to us."

He added: "We have been suffering for two years something like an occupation by entities that are both incompetent and arrogant, which are completely unaccountable, yet we are not heard."

Network Rail is promising improved access for pedestrians and cyclists in the summer.

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