A local councillor is calling on West Oxfordshire District Council to undertake a comprehensive ANPR survey of Witney's main town centre car parks before submitting any planning application to build on the Woodford Way car park.
Cllr Liam Walker has submitted a motion to Full Council asking the Executive Member for Environment to commission temporary Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at both the Woodford Way and Witan Way car parks for a minimum period of five weeks.
The proposal is designed to collect accurate and anonymised data on parking occupancy, vehicle turnover and length of stay, ensuring councillors, residents and businesses have a clear understanding of how the town's key car parks are used before any decision is made on reducing parking provision.
Cllr Liam Walker said: "This motion is about making sure the facts are known it's about making sure any decision is based on robust evidence rather than assumptions. If the Council is proposing to remove parking spaces from one of Witney's busiest public car parks, it has a responsibility to demonstrate exactly what impact that will have."
"ANPR technology provides accurate, anonymised information about occupancy levels, how long people stay and when demand is at its highest. A survey over at least five weeks would give councillors and residents confidence that any future decision is based on real evidence. Once a car park is built on, those parking spaces are gone forever. We must ensure the Council has collected the best possible data before submitting a planning application."
The motion follows growing concerns that previous parking evidence used to support the redevelopment proposals did not provide a complete picture of current parking demand in Witney with data collected from 2022 and only during some weekdays with random spot checks.
Supporting the proposal, Adrian Bullock, Chairman of the Witney & District Chamber of Commerce, said: Since March we have called for anonymised ANPR cameras in all three of the town's main car parks. The data published for the Woodford Way development was years old, incomplete, and gave no reliable picture of how Woodford Way or Marriotts car parks are actually used. The project team and several councillors supported our call at the time.
"ANPR records entry and exit times anonymously. It tells us exactly how long people stay, and how full each car park is by day and hour. No guesswork. That data matters well beyond Woodford Way. Combined with footfall monitoring, it shows who uses the town centre, when, and how – exactly what we need to plan parking provision and support Witney's future.
"Without ANPR, every parking decision is guesswork. Guesswork costs the town—and ultimately the council—money. We fully support the motion for an ANPR assessment of Woodford Way and Witan Way car park usage."
The motion asks the Council to publish the findings of the ANPR survey and ensure the data forms part of the evidence base for any future planning application relating to the Woodford Way car park.
