More public meetings are being lined up as concerns mount about a proposed low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) area featuring a bus gate on Camden Road.
Where the proposed bus gate would begin on Camden Road
Bath & North East Somerset Council has still yet to start formal consultation on what is officially known as the London Road and Snow Hill Area Liveable Neighbourhood (LN) scheme.
However, a petition set up against the proposed bus gate already has more than 2,800 signatures.
According to the council’s website, it is seeking funding from the West of England Combined Authority to install the scheme by March 2027 subject to further engagement, detailed designs and, if appropriate, experimental trials.
The scheme is one of 15 LNs either being planned or already implemented in B&NES by the Liberal Democrat administration.
Since 2018, Camden Residents’ Association have been campaigning for traffic calming and road safety measures to be explored by the council for the benefit of the whole community.
In a recent statement on their website, they said they have yet to take a formal position on the proposed LN as the council’s designs are not yet completed, but that “to implement measures that benefit one set of streets to the detriment of others is not something that we can stand behind”.
The Liberal Democrat councillors for the Walcot ward, John Leach and Oli Henman, have been holding a series of meetings to gather information to feed back to the council on the proposed LN.
The next one is at Burdall’s Yard next Monday, 10th February, at 6.30pm.
Meanwhile after organising a public meeting last November about the proposed bus gate, the Green councillors in the neighbouring Lambridge ward have arranged a follow-up meeting at the New Oriel Hall on Wednesday 19th March at 6pm.
Councillors Joanna Wright and Saskia Heijltjes say they have again invited Councillor Manda Rigby, B&NES cabinet member for highways to the meeting, and hope she will be free to attend this time.
They said: “As ward councillors for Lambridge we are perplexed as to why the council has not included us or residents in this proposal, despite its huge impact on how people travel in the east of Bath.”
At the November meeting, which was attended by about 300 people, fears were raised that a bus gate could simply shift traffic congestion and pollution to other nearby streets, disrupting quieter residential areas.
After that meeting, Councillor Rigby told the Bath Echo that a formal, structured process to engage with residents was being planned and that council officers were doing detailed, technical work to determine potential measures to help reduce unnecessary through-traffic journeys on residential roads in the area.
The petition, set up on the change.org website, includes an objection from Fairfield Park Health Centre about a bus gate on its doorstep, warning of the “severe impact” it would have on both staff and the practice’s 14,000 patients.
As we reported last month, the health centre said that whilst supporting the concept of Liveable Neighbourhoods, this idea is “poorly thought-out”.
“It will affect staff access, the ability of patients to reach the surgery in a timely manner, taxis for elderly or infirm patients who require easy safe and close access to the surgery’s entrance, ambulances, couriers, sterile services, recycling, duty staff attempting to get to patients’ homes on emergency call-outs and many other scenarios.”
Comments on the petition from other objectors include: “This bus gate will displace large amounts of traffic onto London Road, The Paragon and the central area which are all very residential areas and already have more traffic congestion and air pollution that Camden Road.”
Another says: “Building a virtual wall between Fairfield Park and the city it belongs to, whilst forcing traffic in the aera up unsuitable roads. And in bad weather dangerous ones.”
And one critic observes: “This is possibly the most badly designed proposal to alter a road system I have ever seen.
“No thought has been put into the knock-on effects for the wider area, and the alternative routes that traffic will be forced down are tight residential streets which will not take the increase in traffic.
“Camden Road is not a residential street. It has always been a major road for local traffic as long as I have lived in the area, for over 25 years. Closing this off will have a massively detrimental effect on Fairfield Park, Larkhall, Walcot, and Camden.
“It serves no purpose and certainly does not create a liveable neighbourhood; in fact, it does the very opposite.
“It will turn small residential streets into a series of dangerous rat runs. LTNs can work very well in certain areas where the geography and infrastructure can support them. Bath – in general – is not one of those places.”
