A 'community champion' is standing at the next general election to try to put a halt to new traffic schemes in Oxford.

Amir 'Steve' Ali, is standing as an independent in Anneliese Dodds' Oxford East constituency, because he said his community 'is not being adequately represented'.

He said he 'lost faith in the city and county councils' after LTNs were introduced with minimal consultation, while ZEZ and traffic filters are unpopular locally, and harm businesses, he said.

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Last June he delivered a petition to Downing Street calling for a no confidence vote in the county council which, he said, 'ignored' people's concerns over the measures.

Oxford Mail: Amir 'Steve' Ali is standing for Oxford East at the General Election

The petition on Change.org, which described the measures as a “big threat to members of public freedom and businesses”, was signed by more than 3,600 people.

In August Mr Ali delivered a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak which called for him to acknowledge the negative impacts of low traffic neighbourhoods.

The LTN policy was led by Downing Street.

He said: “I don’t get paid to stand up for taxpayers in Oxford, but I do it for all the businesses which are suffering, and my heart goes out to them.”

He has criticised Ms Dodds for “being absent from local life” .

She has responded that she worked to reflect residents’ views’ on LTNs, but LTNs are a council matter and she “cannot dictate to councils”.

The father of three, who works at the Rice Box restaurant on Cowley Road, has been behind several initiatives to 'improve life in the community'.

They included hanging up Father’s Day banners across the city and paying to install a flag in East Oxford designed to celebrate racial unity with greetings and messages of peace in seven languages.

Last Christmas Mr Ali, who is part of the Bangladeshi community and Muslim, acted as 'a real-life Father Christmas' when he bought and distributed Christmas presents to needy families across Oxfordshire.

In 2019, he successfully campaigned for Eid lights to be left on to also celebrate the festive season and in 2020 he paid for Cowley Road’s first Christmas tree.

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He has joined staff at the Rice Box in celebrating the Chinese New Year with bright decorations.

He ran as an independent candidate in Oxford City Council’s elections in May 2022, but was unsuccessful.

He said: "I will remove all the LTNs and fight against bus filters. I will also help people who are struggling because of cost of living crisis plus I will try to make school meals free for every kid in Oxford.

"I've already raised the issue of LTNs with the government by visiting 10 Downing Street four times."

The other candidates for Oxford East selected so far are: Anneliese Dodds (Labour), Sushila Dhall (Green Party), Lawrence Haar (Reform UK), Benjamin Adams (Social Democratic Party) amd Theo Jupp (Liberal Democrats).