Civil servants are battling to explain to ministers that concepts like ’15-minute cities’, said to restrict people’s ability to go shopping, ‘don’t really exist’, a top Department for Transport (DfT) official has revealed.
Ministers have recently announced plans to push back against local authority road safety and traffic reduction measures, including the launch of the DfT’s new Plan for Drivers, billed as ‘a new 30-point plan to support people’s freedom to use their cars and curb over-zealous enforcement measures’.
The DfT described ‘so called 15-minute cities’ as an example of ‘schemes which aggressively restrict where people can drive’ and said the Government aimed to stop councils from implementing them.
It cited Oxford as somewhere the concept had been introduced. The city council has floated the idea – as a planning policy that seeks to provide amenities locally – however, it is not clear this is behind any of the traffic restrictions implemented by Oxfordshire County Council.
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