South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative administration has given the green light to transport schemes designed to improve road safety and beat traffic congestion across the district.
As part of this financial year’s Local Transport Capital Programme, building work will start on the district’s first park and ride facility – a £1.2m scheme at Parkway station.
Already-announced changes to the controversial 2+ lane on the ring road will be completed in an effort to respond to Downend and Emersons Green councillors’ calls for radical action to ease congestion.
And further reducing the number of casualties, which are already at a record low, will be a central aim of this year’s transport programme with a number of road safety schemes planned.
These include pedestrian crossing improvements in Westerleigh, Scott Way in Yate, Overndale Road in Downend and Aldermoor Way in Longwell Green, as well as elsewhere.
School children at Filton Hill in Filton, St Peter’s in Pilning and Wheatfield in Bradley Stoke will also see new crossing points installed to make it safer to walk to school.
And in the Cossham Street/St James Street area of Mangotsfield, the safety of shoppers and children attending Mangotsfield Secondary school will be improved after a campaign by the area’s councillors, Carol McCarthy, Adrian Millward and Kevin Seager (Con, Rodway). They said:
“Pedestrian safety is an issue of real concern for residents in this part of Mangotsfield.
As well as the traffic generally being quite heavy around the Cossham Street and St James Street area, there are a lot of pedestrian movements generated by local shoppers and children attending nearby Mangotsfield Secondary School.
We have already secured extensive road resurfacing in this area and now we are campaigning for the area to be made safer for pedestrians and we hope that the council’s engineers will be able to design a scheme that commands local support.”
Work will also start on the first phase of a new footpath between the villages of Alveston and Old Down after a campaign by local councillor, Matthew Riddle (Con, Severn). He said:
“I am really pleased that the first phase of the much-needed Alveston and Old Down footway has been given the go-ahead. At the moment, walkers, runners and cyclists are forced onto what is quite a busy road for a rural area.”
Commenting on the overall transport programme, Cllr Brian Allinson, the Council’s transport chief, said:
“The Council only has limited transport funding and so it is vital that it is invested to deliver the maximum transport benefits for the public, particularly in reducing congestion and reducing accidents.
When it comes to beating congestion, we are clear that we want to be pro-public transport without being anti-motorist.
That means building park and rides in sensible locations, including our first at Parkway, and constructing new dedicated bus lanes that do not simply involve commandeering existing general traffic lanes.
And we are determined to avoid complacency and further improve a local road safety record that is already one of the best in the country.
Improving, for example, pedestrian safety means implementing capital schemes, such as crossings where there are not existing ways of getting from one side of the road to the other, and backing that up with comprehensive road safety advice that encourages greater responsibility.”
Source: Conservative Group on South Gloucestershire Council
