This decision was delegated to officers under Part 4.4 of the Council’s Constitution: all executive functions except the ones in Part 4.5 and 4.6 are delegated to the officers in the senior management structure.

To commission Urban Movement to undertake work for the temporary part-pedestrianisation of Market Street in Oxford. Services will include stakeholder engagement, pre-trial monitoring, transport reports, detailed design, managing delivery and post-trial monitoring / reporting.

Urban Movement will appoint sub-contractors to deliver relevant specialist services as required such as architects, civil engineers, horticulturalists, and lighting designers.

The commission value is estimated at £50,000 and will be paid from the Covered Market capital budget of £6.87M, as approved by Cabinet on 8 February 2023: ‘Implementing The Covered Market Masterplan’.

The decision allows delivery of detailed design and improvement works for Market Street public realm. It also provides the opportunity to trial first-step changes to the parking and loading provision, which will help prepare the Council and provide valuable learning for permanent future changes as part of the wider Covered Market project.

Part-pedestrianisation enables outdoor seating and increases the pedestrian-friendly public dwell space available in the city centre, encouraging footfall to the market and creating the potential for pop up market stalls.

Improvements to Market Street are aligned with the City Centre Action Plan, to rebalance the space within streets from vehicles to pedestrians, support hospitality sector recovery and improve the public realm.

Not to proceed or to delay the project. These options were rejected due to the necessity to trial a key element of the wider Covered Market project ahead of permanent construction works, and the opportunity to increase footfall, improve the public realm experience and support hospitality recovery in the near future.

Decision taken by Carolyn Ploszynski, Head of Regeneration and Economy.