(Oxford Daily) April 2, 2026 — On Tuesday, March 24, the Planning Court rejected a legal challenge to Oxfordshire County Council’s temporary Oxford congestion charge, leaving in place the £5 fee for cars passing through six charging points in the city unless drivers are exempt or hold a permit or pass.
In a judgment following a March 24 hearing, Mr Justice Fordham refused Open Roads for Oxford Ltd permission to bring judicial review proceedings, backing an earlier refusal on the papers by the High Court’s Mr Justice Johnson and concluding that none of the proposed grounds had a realistic prospect of success.
The case centred on the council’s decision of September 10, 2025, which led to the Oxford Congestion Charging Order 2025 being made on October 27 and coming into force two days later.
Mr Justice Fordham said the charging scheme emerged as an interim response after long-running Network Rail works at Botley Road delayed the council’s previously planned traffic filter scheme.
The judgment records that the county had originally intended to introduce six trial filter points in Oxford, but because the Botley Road works were then expected to continue until around August 2026, the same six locations were instead turned into charging points.
Open Roads for Oxford argued that the council’s consultation was flawed and that its equality impact assessment was unlawful.
The judge rejected both points.
On consultation, he found residents had a “full and fair opportunity” to object not only to the detail of the scheme but to the existence of a charging scheme at all, and to propose alternatives.
He also said the consultation materials, including FAQs, adequately explained why the council was pursuing the temporary charge rather than waiting for Botley Road to reopen or immediately pressing ahead with the traffic filters.
Mr Justice Fordham was more critical of the drafting history of the 2025 equality impact assessment than he was of the consultation process. In his judgment, he stated there were “obvious examples” that the 2025 assessment had been carried over from the earlier 2022 filter-scheme analysis, and that some language had not been fully revised.
However, he stated that, read fairly and as a whole, the 37-page assessment, together with the director’s report to cabinet, still showed that councillors had been given the material needed to consider the equalities effects of the scheme.
