Mass leafleting in Oxford against 15-minute cities

More than 400 people from around the country attended a mass leafleting event in Oxford over the weekend. The event was organised by a group called Not Our Future, with the aim of leafletting every house in the city. The leafletting was intended to inform the public about possible restrictions to freedom of movement as a result of Oxford County Councils decision trial a controversial traffic filtering system in 2024.

David Fleming, the organiser of the event, believed Not Our Future had successfully leafletted the entire city of Oxford and said this leafletting campaign could be rolled out in other cities around the UK. The leaflet contained information about the negative consequences of 15-minute cities and warned of the possible restrictions on freedom of movement posed by the new traffic filtering system.

The traffic filtering systems being trialled are intended to lower traffic congestion, reduce air pollution and make the city a friendlier place to walk and cycle. Many in the council view the new traffic filters as a continuation of greener living policies such as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) which have been implemented around the UK for several years.

LTNs are neighbourhoods in which smaller access roads are blocked off with the intention of directing traffic in a certain direction or along a specified route. The intention is to lower air pollution, reduce congestion and make the streets safer for pedestrians. However, many residents of Oxford in attendance of the event told Rebel News that the existing LTNs had the opposite effect to what they were originally intended. The closing off of roads has led to more pollution and more congestion and some residents fear the new traffic filtering system will only increase the problems.

Not Our Future claim the trialled traffic filtering system is actually something more sinister. That it is actually more about controlling freedom of movement rather than improving air quality and easing congestion. They believe the controversial traffic filtering system could be part of a framework for a dystopian future outlined by the World Economic Forum in line with the Agenda 2030 goals.

Since the announcement in late November 2022 the Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council claim they have received large amount of criticism and abuse online. The Oxford County Council claim that online misinformation about the proposed trial has resulted in their staff receiving threats and abuse online.

Lizz Leffman the leader of Oxfordshire County Council and Duncan Enright the cabinet member for travel and development strategy recently published a video which they hoped would ease the tension and clear up, some of what they claim is ‘misinformation’.

Despite large amounts of opposition to the proposed traffic filtering system and without the policy being put to a vote for Oxford’s residents the County Council has decided to continue with the trial set to start in 2024.

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