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Pub helps motorists defy transport plan

From the archive, first published Saturday 20th Nov 2004.

A Headington pub is charging staff at a new hospital to use its car park, defying planners' hopes they would use the park-and-ride service.

Managers at the Manor Hospital stopped staff from parking at the site when it opened in October in a bid to reduce traffic in the area.

But just a few hundred yards down the road, the White Horse, in London Road, allows about 20 workers to use its car park for £20 a week each.

Oxford City Council's principal planning officer Paul Semple believes the initiative could be illegal.

He said: "It's something I'd have to look into. If they're letting it as a commercial car park then it clearly raises planning issues and we'd have to investigate. Enforcement officers have been asked to look into this."

Pub manager Michael Conroy said: "One or two people have asked if they can have parking permits. There's a fee because it goes on to our books and helps our bottom line.

"The car park belongs to the pub and is private property, and as far as I can see, it's not a problem."

Although parking at the White Horse is double the cost of the Thornhill park-and-ride - which, at 60p for parking and £1.40 for a ticket, costs £10 a week, workers said it was more convenient.

A medical secretary from Littlemore, who would not give her name, said: "Where I live, it would take me 90 minutes to use the park-and-ride to get to work, rather than 20 minutes if I park here.

"I had parking at the Acland before we moved to the Manor, and the parking ban here hasn't pleased staff at all."

A nurse, who also declined to give her name, said: "I've been told there have been a lot of car thefts at Thornhill, even during the day, so I won't park there.

"Also, the buses are always busy and during the winter you have to wait for them in the cold weather. I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to park at the pub if I'm willing to pay for it."

The city's transport plan, coordinated by Oxfordshire County Council, aims to reduce traffic in Headington.

Principal engineer Richard Kingshott said: "We want to prevent congestion getting any worse, but this is just continuing the problem and discouraging people using public transport."

Craig Simmons, a Green Party member of Oxford City Council, said the 83-bed Manor Hospital was one of a number of developments, like new buildings at Oxford Brookes University and the John Radcliffe Hospital, which had won planning permission subject to parking restrictions.

He said: "The agreement to have developments on these sites was conditional on there being alternative travel arrangements for workers, and the council needs to act otherwise the whole area will become gridlocked."

Hospital managers said they had arranged a 10 per cent discount for bus passes as an incentive to staff but only a few had asked for it.

A spokesman said: "We've agreed that none of our staff will be allowed to park in the hospital, as a neighbourly way of reducing traffic.

"I would merely observe that if we are trying to reduce parking in the area it really does need the support of everyone in the area. They can't have it both ways."

In a statement, Greene King, which owns the White Horse, said it would be happy to discuss the use of the pub's car park with city council planners.

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