An Oxford shop has won a rent cut - because of the effects of the Oxford Transport Strategy.

Judge Playford, sitting in the High Court in London, set the rent for numbers 9 and 10 Broad Street at £49,378 a year but allowed a five per cent reduction because of the removal of parking spaces as part of OTS. He ruled that pedestrianisation had led to a loss of trade.

With other adjustments, the new rent will be £48,630 a year.

The shop was owned by Howes Cycles before the company was bought by Oxford Experience.

Oxford City Council had agreed to grant Howes Cycles a new lease but there was a dispute over the rent.

The judge's ruling surprised Oxfordshire County Council.

David Young, director of environmental services, said that surveys in 1999 and 2000 had shown a 13 per cent increase in the number of shoppers using Broad Street since the OTS was introduced.

Roger Rosewell, a spokesman for ROX, the Rescue Oxford pressure group opposed to OTS, welcomed the ruling and said it confirmed the negative impact on retail business politicians had refused to acknowledge.

He said: "This important judgement will send shock waves through the business community. I am sure there will be a number of retailers who will study it and demand a reduction in their rent and others who will want compensation as a result. What we all want, however, are real changes designed to bring shoppers back into the city."

He said that anti-car policies had had a disastrous effect on shops such as newsagents.

He said park-and-ride deterred shoppers who wanted to make one purchase because it turned every shopping trip into a "lengthy venture".