Rutland’s historic county town of Oakham has been steadily declining as a market town over recent years and factors such as long-term roadworks have forced an even greater downturn in trade. A recent poll on Rutland County Council’s plan to introduce a one-way system had responses from less than two thousand people out of only five and a half thousand polled (estimated Rutland Electorate is approximately thirty-thousand) and yet Rutland County Council propose to proceed based on a 53% positive result from that poll.

Many Rutland residents feel that the planned one-way system is an expensive waste of money that will hasten Oakham’s decline as a traditional market town even further, therefore a full referendum of the Rutland Electorate should be carried out before the work is approved by Rutland County Council.