Oxford United’s supporters trust OxVox today announced that it had admitted defeat in its fight to try and persuade the owners of the Oxford Science Park to allow parking there on match days. In its statement the Trust announced that it had “received a letter from the Science Park facilities manager, written on the instruction of Magdalen College and Prudential Assurance, the joint owners of the site. In the letter the Science Park states that the site is private property and that car parks are private for the use of tenants who have rights of parking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also comment that ?Neither the tenants nor the Science Park owners are in favour of football parking?, and that they now regard the matter as closed.”

OxVox had arranged a meeting for last week involving themselves, the facilities manager of the Science Park and tenant companies, representatives of the football club, the County and City Councils, and the Thames Valley Police football liaison officer, all of whom had agreed to attend, but unfortunately the Science Park cancelled at the last minute. Although the letter from the Science Park says that they had ?made written support for the football club planning application for extra parking spaces in 2002?, OxVox says that it finds their response to be very unhelpful.

In many other towns with football clubs, the local business community is very supportive with parking on matchdays. The club was ready with a scheme for allocating reserved parking to named individuals, which would have met security concerns, but it was not given the opportunity by the Science Park to make the case. A more positive and constructive response from the Science Park would have been helpful to the resident community as well as the football club and its supporters. In addition it would have reflected well on the Science Park and its tenants.

With local residents and the County Council both apparently inflexible in their attitudes to matchday parking the only viable alternatives would seem to be either getting the go-ahead to convert the land opposite the stadium to a temporary car park pending the possible new housing development there, or more frequent and more accessible public transport being laid on. Neither option is worth holding breath for.