The work started nearly two years ago and was due to take six months (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
A botched project has left a city divided in two and businesses pushed towards financial ruin.
Botley Road in has been closed since April 2023 due to a rail and road improvement project that was initially planned to take six months. Since then, elderly and disabled residents have been forced to use unsafe alternative routes and local businesses have been cut off from customers.
Nearly two years later, over a hundred angry locals have held a demonstration outside a consultation meeting where they were informed that the work would not be completed before August 2026.
Julian Le Vay, 74, has organised and funded the resistance, vowing to hold to account.
He told : “It is like being in a nightmare where you run but never move. A good number of small businesses will go bankrupt, I know these people and they are being destroyed.
“I think people are gearing up for a much bigger struggle. The local community is energised and affronted and is going to step up and form a more formal organisation to keep up the pressure on this.”
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Amanda Sulimanbell (L) has lost 90% of her shop’s footfall and Julian Le Vay (R) is leading the resistance (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Tom Rainey, 54, owns two businesses close to where the work is taking place and believes that the disastrous project could end up costing him half a million pounds in lost turnover.
He said: “The city has essentially been cut off from us for two years and hampered people being able to get to my restaurants.
“They now have to take taxis around the disruption which means that many inevitably go elsewhere. This means we probably lose 100 people a week who otherwise would have come to dine with us.
“The work has seen turnover fall by about £200,000 a year meaning that by the time they finally get it finished, we are probably looking at £500,000 lost.”
Mr Rainey slammed the abysmal communication from with affected locals and told how he and others have been dismissed when trying to initiate talks about compensation.
He added: “We have raised compensation with Network Rail but simply get told to contact our insurance company who are under no obligation to pay out because of the way the work has been handled.
“Local businesses are working together to get the road open and to press Network Rail for compensation or at the very least subsidies similar to what local bus companies have had.”
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Tom Rainey believes that the project will leave his restaurant’s turnover down by £500,000 (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Over 100 people protested against Network Rail’s shocking handling of the works (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The story is echoed by many of the business owners who turned up to protest outside a consultation being held with a select few residents.
Amanda Sulimanbell, 59, and says that her shop has seen footfall slashed by 90%.
She said: “I have had my business for 25 years and then last year, the road was blocked off with no warning, giving people no access throughout the summer.
“Now, work being conducted by Thames Water means that I can’t even open my shop because nobody is able to get to it. I have had to attend local markets to try and offset the loss of earnings.”
Ms Sulimanbell criticised the lack of communication from Network Rail claiming that a weekly newsletter simply tells people what work has been done but does not warn them of planned work and potential disruption it will cause.
“The tunnel of doom” has recently been redone but residents describe it as intimidating (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Local MP Anneliese Dodds was left in doubt about the residents’ views on the tunnel (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Outside the demonstration, which was moved at the last minute with no explanation given, are dozens of pensioners whose lives have been made miserable by the intrusion and inconvenience of a project set to overrun by two years.
Jude Carroll, 76, lives around the corner and describes the disruption caused and the fear felt by many forced to walk through a dingy tunnel to get past the works.
She said: “It has been a blight on my neighbourhood right since the beginning. We regularly get letters telling us what will happen, they say thank you for your patience and I think how dare you assume our patience.”
When out and about, Ms Carroll is forced to use the tunnel, given the nickname “tunnel of doom” by local residents.
She said: “The tunnel is often intimidating and unpleasant. I have been shouted at, sworn at, passed too close by delivery bikes, halted by groups occupying the whole space. This happens regularly.”
A spokesperson dodged questions about plans for compensation for local business but did vow to meet with those affected.
A spokesperson told the Express.co.uk: “Everything that could possibly go wrong with a project has done here, but it’s our responsibility and our job to get it sorted as soon as possible.
“We have seen and heard of the huge disruption caused to local businesses and residents and we are meeting with them today to listen to them first-hand, and share our final plans and how we can help lessen the continuing impact of a project that will eventually bring huge benefits to locals and the wider Oxford community.”