Oxford Traffic Filters: Vale Drivers Get 25 Day Passes

Oxfordshire County Council is urging drivers to check whether they qualify for a traffic filter permit before the trial starts on Monday 28 September. From that morning, the option to pay £5 to drive a car through one of the six filter points in Oxford disappears. A permit becomes the only way through.

Residents of Abingdon, Wantage, Faringdon and the rest of the Vale sit in the council’s Oxfordshire permit area, which is the whole county outside the city. That entitles each permit holder to 25 free day passes a year. Residents inside the Oxford permit area get 100.

The council published the reminder on 2 September. More than 129,000 permits have already been issued under the temporary congestion charge it replaces.

Three things change on 28 September

The switch is not simply a rename. The council’s own guidance sets out what is different:

• The £5 payment ends. Under the congestion charge a driver without a permit could pay to pass. Under the filters they cannot.
• Day pass allowances reset. Existing permits transfer automatically, but any unused congestion charge day passes are not carried over. Allocations go back to 25 for Oxfordshire residents and 100 for Oxford ones.
• The central permit area closes. Resident permits there become Oxford permit area permits. Visitor, workplace parking, and sports club, nursery and military training permits for that area are not transferred at all.

A six-month public consultation opens the same day.

Where the filters are, and when they operate

There are six, all of them inside Oxford, at the same points as the congestion charge cameras. The council’s map page gives the hours:

They run all year, bank holidays included. Outside those hours any vehicle can pass without a permit.

The restrictions apply only to cars and motorhomes, the vehicles the DVLA classes as M1. Vans, motorbikes, mopeds, scooters and lorries are exempt at all times. Electric cars are not.

The fine, and the first-time warning

Cameras read every number plate. A car without a permit gets a £70 penalty, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days and rising to £105 after 28 days.

For the first six months of the trial the council will send a warning notice rather than a penalty the first time a car passes a filter without a permit. That grace period runs to late March 2027.

What the monitoring shows so far

The council publishes traffic data monthly. Its figures for June 2026, quoted in the 2 September release, record lower volumes on several routes into the city: Magdalen Bridge down 8 per cent, Folly Bridge down 12 per cent and Abingdon Road down 5 per cent.

It also records the other side of that. Traffic has increased, or journeys have got longer, on outer and ring road sections including the southern ring road around Kennington, Heyford Hill and Hinksey Hill. Kennington is a Vale parish, and that stretch is the one Abingdon drivers use to reach the A34 and the Eastern Bypass.

Park and ride use for July 2026 was up on the year before at the two sites Vale drivers are most likely to use: Redbridge up 44 per cent and Seacourt up 31 per cent. Oxford Parkway was up 33 per cent. Oxford Bus Company reports around 41,000 extra passenger journeys a week across Oxfordshire, about 12 per cent growth, roughly 17,450 of them linked to park and ride.

Why it is happening now

The filters were approved by the county council’s cabinet in November 2022 but could not start while Botley Road was shut, so a temporary congestion charge ran from October 2025 instead. Network Rail’s page for the Oxfordshire project still states that Botley Road reopens on Sunday 20 September, and the county council’s guidance says the 28 September start “follows Network Rail’s revised programme”. The date has moved before. We checked both sources on 4 September and neither had changed.

Network Rail is holding update sessions at The Kings Centre, Osney Mead, Oxford on Wednesday 9 September, for residents at 5pm and for businesses at 6.30pm.

What it means for you

• Check your permit now if you do not have one. Applications are on the county council’s permit page. If you already hold a congestion charge permit, do nothing: it transfers.
• Use up any remaining congestion charge day passes before 28 September. They will not be carried across.
• Know the limits. One permit per person, up to two permits per address, and up to three cars on a permit. The 25 days are per permit, not per car, so two cars on one permit crossing a filter on the same day use two days. A day pass is activated the first time a car passes a filter and lasts until 23:59:59 that day.
• Unused days expire. The permit runs 12 months and anything left does not roll into the next year.
• There are 20 permit types beyond the resident ones, including Blue Badge holders, unpaid carers, frequent hospital patients, disability benefit claimants, SEND pupils, approved driving instructors and community health and care workers. Check the list before assuming you do not qualify.
• Plan the route. The council states that with Botley Road open every part of Oxford can be reached by car without crossing a filter, though you may need a different route. Blue signs give 73 metres of warning; yellow signs mark the filter itself.

If you are driving to Oxford rather than parking locally, our parking in Abingdon page has the town’s car park charges and charging days, and the roadworks and travel page tracks what is closed across the district this week. For journeys further afield, trains to London covers the three stations that serve Abingdon.

Sources: Oxfordshire County Council, 2 September 2026; About the traffic filters; map, locations and permit areas; permit terms and conditions; Network Rail Oxfordshire. All checked 4 September 2026.