Levels 6, 7 and 8 at Marriotts Walk would go to a 12-hour maximum stay, adding 50 long-stay spaces. Parking stays free. The council agreed to consult on 9 Sept.

Fifty more spaces at Marriotts Walk would take a 12-hour maximum stay under proposals West Oxfordshire District Council agreed to consult on last week. The Executive voted unanimously on Wednesday 9 September to open a statutory consultation on raising the limit on levels 6, 7 and 8 of the multi-storey to 12 hours.

Parking there is free and stays free. What changes is how long you can leave the car.

What would change, level by level

Levels 1 to 5 would not change. The council’s report to the Executive sets out the rest:

Level Maximum stay now Proposed
1 to 5 4 hours No change
6 4 hours 12 hours
7 and 8 9 hours 12 hours

That is the detail the council’s own announcement left out. Levels 7 and 8 are not being freed up from a four-hour limit. They already allow nine hours. The real gain is level 6, which moves from four hours to twelve.

The report puts the current number of spaces on levels 7 and 8 at 146, rising to 196 if the change is made. The council’s where to park page lists the car park slightly differently, as 423 short-stay and 150 long-stay spaces, plus 28 disabled bays and 5 parent-and-child bays.

Chart of maximum stay times by level at Marriotts Walk car park, Witney, now and as proposed

Why the council says it is doing it

The previous owners of Marriotts Walk set the stay times, with the council doing the enforcement. The council has since bought the property, and the report says it now wants the long-stay times brought into line with the rest of its car parks.

Most West Oxfordshire car parks already run a 12-hour maximum. Woodford Way, Burwell Drive and Gordon Way in Witney all do.

Councillor Alistair Wray, Executive Member for Environment, told the Executive the longer limit was meant to support town centre workers, residents and visitors, including staff working longer shifts at Witney Community Hospital. Councillor Andy Graham, the Leader, seconded the proposal and said he and the Executive had visited the car park.

The hospital detail the press release did not carry

The report contains a figure the council’s announcement did not. Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust told the council that Witney Community Hospital has just 69 off-road parking spaces in total:

  • 35 staff-only free spaces, needing an NHS email address and a printed permit
  • 25 visitor spaces, where charges apply after the first 30 minutes
  • 5 blue badge spaces
  • 2 electric vehicle charging spaces
  • 2 pool car spaces

Priority for staff parking goes to those working unsociable hours on the two admission wards, which hold 60 beds. The trust’s fleet and car park manager is aware that some staff and visitors already park in district council car parks and walk, according to the report.

The second proposal: a strip of pavement

The Executive also agreed to consult on redrawing the car park’s enforcement boundary. A small area of pavement beside Marriotts Close would be brought inside the West Oxfordshire District Council (Off-Street Parking Places) No. 1 Order 2021.

The strip has lockable posts that let emergency vehicles reach the pedestrian area and the shops. The report says vehicles have been parking there as a quick drop-off or pick-up point, and that new signs would tell drivers not to.

The council put the whole cost at £2,300: about £1,500 to change the stay-time signs, £300 for the emergency access signs and £500 for the statutory public notices. It would come from the existing budget.

Who decides at the end

Not the Executive. Its third resolution delegates the decision to the Executive Director for Corporate Services, in consultation with the Executive Member for Environment. They will read the consultation responses and can make the change in full, make part of it, or drop it altogether.

One non-Executive councillor at the meeting said the car park was underused and suggested signs on the roads into Witney directing drivers to it. The Executive agreed to consider that.

What it means for you

If you work in Witney town centre on a long or irregular shift, this is the change to watch. It would give you 196 spaces where you can leave a car for 12 hours instead of 146, all of them free, in the car park closest to the shops and the cinema.

If you shop for a couple of hours, nothing changes. Levels 1 to 5 keep the four-hour limit, and the council says that is deliberate, so that short-stay turnover near the entrances is protected.

Two practical points:

  • Marriotts Walk is open 7am to 1am Monday to Saturday and 9am to 1am on Sunday. The building is locked overnight, with access only for residents of the building who hold a key fob. A 12-hour stay has to fit inside those hours.
  • If the pavement by Marriotts Close comes inside the order, stopping there to drop someone off becomes an enforceable offence rather than an inconvenience.

Nothing has changed yet. The variation needs statutory and public consultation before it can be made. We could not confirm today whether the notice has gone up: the council’s engagement platform at yourvoice.westoxon.gov.uk returned no readable list of open consultations when we checked on 13 September. Watch for the public notice, which is one of the £500 costs in the report.

Our standing guide to parking in Witney has the maximum stays and space counts for every council car park in the town, and our Witney roadworks and travel page covers the closures running through the rest of September.

Sources