Church Green goes back for more talks with Witney Town Council. Carterton and Eynsham are refused outright, and only Burford's Barns Lane is approved.
Plans for electric vehicle charging bays on Church Green in Witney have been put on hold, and the equivalent schemes in Carterton and Eynsham have been thrown out altogether. Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport took the decisions at a delegated decisions meeting on Thursday 3 September.
Five West Oxfordshire sites were in front of him. Only one, in Burford, was approved.
What was decided, site by site
| Site | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Barns Lane, Burford | Approved as advertised, four bays |
| Church Green, Witney | Deferred, to consult Witney Town Council on a reduced four-bay scheme |
| Market Square, Bampton | Deferred, against an officer recommendation for three bays |
| Hill View, Carterton | Not approved |
| Mill Street, Eynsham | Not approved |
The five sit inside a much bigger programme. Oxfordshire has £4 million of government grant to install 1,500 public chargers across the county by summer 2028, which would double the number available now. About 500 of those are meant to be on the public highway, and this meeting dealt with the first 18 of an expected 100 or more on-street sites. Connected Kerb holds the contract for on-street chargers, EZ-Charge for the ones in council car parks.
Witney: 219 homes without a driveway, and a conservation area
Officers wanted the Church Green bays. Their case is that there are an estimated 219 properties within a five-minute walk with no private driveway, that there are no other public chargers covering that part of Witney, and that no other site in the programme would cover it either. On that basis they called it a priority.
The objections came in three forms:
- that Witney already has enough charging provision
- that the units would be visible in a much loved and historic part of the town’s conservation area
- that Church Green’s parking is already under pressure, with residents disagreeing among themselves about whether the spaces are mainly used by residents or by visitors
On the conservation point officers noted that West Oxfordshire District Council’s own conservation and heritage officers had accepted the units in that location, and that Witney Town Council did not object on appearance. The town council’s stated preference was simply to avoid extra infrastructure there if possible.
What tipped it was scale. A number of residents, and the town council, said a smaller scheme might be acceptable, so officers recommended deferring to talk to the town council about four bays only. The cabinet member agreed. Nothing is cancelled, and nothing is built.
Carterton and Eynsham: refused for different reasons
Hill View in Carterton, about six miles west of Witney, was refused on the strength of the response. The report records “a high level of objections” citing extreme parking pressure, inappropriate parking, access and safety, and no real support for that specific site. Officers accepted the chargers “would not be welcomed and would unlikely to be well-used in this neighbourhood”.
Mill Street in Eynsham, about six miles east of Witney, failed on a more technical point. Installing chargers on the narrower eastern section would leave slightly under two metres of footway clearance, which officers judged unacceptable for what amounts to a high street. Residents also pointed at the existing 12-bay Park and Charge hub in Back Lane car park, a short walk away. The operator’s figures show 80 per cent of those chargers are used at least once a day, with utilisation rising 27 per cent, then 38 per cent, then 13 per cent across the last three years. Officers said they will watch that trend before proposing anything else in the village.
Burford: the one that got through
Barns Lane in Burford is the district’s only approval. Objections were few: one about parking in Burford generally, one about the safety of chargers close to the A40. Officers judged the loss of four spaces minor against the benefit, and noted that Burford currently has no genuinely public EV chargers at all, with an estimated 73 driveway-less properties within five minutes’ walk.
What it means for you
Nothing changes on the ground in Witney yet. If you park on Church Green, the spaces stay as they are while the county talks to the town council about a four-bay version.
If you drive an electric car and live in Carterton or Eynsham, the county’s public answer for now is the existing off-street provision, and in Eynsham that means Back Lane car park. In Burford the four bays go into the traffic regulation order process before anything is installed.
There is a wrinkle worth knowing about on timing. The council’s decision record gives a call-in deadline of 8 September and says the decision comes into force on 9 September if nobody calls it in. The published decisions document says the list was republished on 4 September and that the decisions become effective at 5pm on 11 September. No call-in had been registered when we checked. Either way this is the point at which a county councillor can still ask a scrutiny committee to look again.
Consultation on the sites ran from 8 July to 7 August, drew 677 online responses, and was advertised in the Witney and West Oxfordshire Gazette among others. Letters went to about 425 properties in West Oxfordshire.
Our running record of council decisions affecting the town is at Witney planning news, and where you can currently park is in Parking in Witney.
Sources
- Proposed Countywide Electric Vehicle Bays, decision record, Oxfordshire County Council for the decision status, publication date and call-in dates.
- Decisions, Delegated Decisions by Cabinet Member for Transport, 3 September 2026 for which recommendations were approved, deferred and amended, and the effective date.
- Countywide, proposed electric vehicle charging only parking bays, report by the Director of Environment and Highways for the recommendations, the consultation figures, the officer responses on each site, the driveway-less property estimates and the Back Lane utilisation data.
- First sites approved for Oxfordshire’s electric vehicle charging programme, Oxfordshire County Council, 4 September 2026.
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