On Monday 3 April the Seacourt Park and Ride extension went from being largely dry in the morning to being underwater 8 hrs later. Here’s a picture of the car park taken by a local resident early on Monday morning:

This video clip, taken at around 10.30 the same morning, shows the rapidly rising water. You can see the water spreading across the car park in real time.

By 6.30 pm the car park looked like this:

And here’s a video clip which shows the flooded facility on Tuesday morning.

Oxford City Council shut the car park first thing on Monday morning, but the pedestrian and cycle pathway was not closed until 24 hours later, with many people trying to use it on the Monday. Some  turned back on encountering the flooding but others took their chances, ploughing through the floodwater in an attempt to access the bus stop.

The flood happened on a weekday. Given the speed of the rising water levels, there remains a question as to how promptly action would be taken at weekends, overnight, and on bank holidays, particularly to ensure the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. Water started to appear in the car park on the Saturday morning (1 April), when several cars were still parked there.

OFA identified safety issues as an area of concern during the planning process for the car park extension. River levels have not been especially high in this event. The level of the Seacourt stream at Minns estate, across the road from the Park and Ride, was 0.3 m below its peak in January this year.