New Oxford United ground could shut part of key road on match days
But the stadium is "likely" to have less impact on the wider road network than the Kassam
Part of a key road might need to be closed on match days once Oxford United moves into its proposed stadium.
The club will leave the Kassam Stadium in summer 2026 and will release more details about its plans for the new ground at the Triangle in Kidlington next month.
Part of Oxford Road might need to be shut off to “allow more space” for the expected volume of fans walking to and from it, a council expert said.
Police have “significant concerns” about the roads around the Triangle and how they could “safely accommodate” fans.
County council senior transport planner Will Madgwick said a single lane closure from Oxford Parkway station to the stadium site would be enough. That would mean buses and cyclists could still get through on Oxford Road, he said.
The road currently has a bus lane and regular lane into Oxford from the Kidlington Roundabout up to the Cutteslowe Roundabout. It has another lane for traffic leaving the city.
Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet agreed in principle to lease the Green Belt site to the football club on 19 September.
Mr Madgwick said the walking or cycling route from Oxford Parkway “needs to be appropriately planned and deemed safe for the large number of fans expected”.
He said building a bridge from the station - and its 1,600 car parking spaces - might be “preferable” but that “may not be possible due to land constraints”.
While the new ground’s expected capacity of 16,000 would make it bigger than the Kassam Stadium, he said the “active and sustainable travel options available” are “likely” to mean it has less of an impact on the wider road network.
But Thames Valley Police’s designing out crime officer Kevin Cox said the proposal would have a “significant impact” on the force’s resources.
He said colleagues were “unable to see” how roads around the stadium would be “able to function safely without a very significant amount of alterations to improve the road network”.
He added a “failure to provide suitable crossing facilities [would] result in fans moving en masse and littering Oxford Road”, while some would “just run across the road”.
Having one route in and out of the site “would not be ideal” because “football fans will move as they want to and will not follow signposted routes,” he said.
All of the details from the county council and police are responses to a scoping opinion for the football stadium.
That will be used to establish if the application would have a significant impact on the environment and if the club would need to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment to get planning permission.
As the highway authority for Oxfordshire, the county council is responsible for roads, how they are managed and their upkeep (except in Oxford, where the city council is responsible for maintaining them).
Cherwell District Council, as the responsible planning authority, will make the final decision as to whether the stadium gets planning permission.
Kidlington county and Cherwell councillor, Ian Middleton, said “one of the biggest concerns” of using the site is how a capacity crowd could get to it safely.
“It has been suggested in other reports [from the club] that Oxford Road could be closed for a length of time to allow people to access the stadium from the railway station. A footbridge was at one time proposed but has now been relegated to a ‘potential bridge,’” he said.
“This highlights one of the biggest concerns in getting up to 16,000 people across a busy road safely, regardless of how they arrive in the area, without serious disruption to the surrounding urban neighbourhood,” he added.
Cllr Middleton, who is opposed to the county council leasing the Triangle to the football club, said the land is “an important local feature” of the Kidlington Gap.
That maintains a separation between Oxford and the village. The Triangle site was bought by the county council in 1937 for that purpose.
Cllr Middleton said a possible entrance to the stadium site from Frieze Way could result in tailbacks and that there has so far been a “serious lack of detail” addressing transport and connectivity issues.
Earlier this month, a former county council cabinet member for transport, Yvonne Constance, said she felt the club’s commitment to getting 90% of fans eventually using sustainable transport to get to the Triangle was too vague.
Plots of land near the stadium site are set to be developed over coming years.
Local campaigners’ bid to get 4,400 homes in Kidlington, Yarnton and Begbroke removed from the Cherwell District Council plan was denied at the High Court in 2021.