Dealing with Bath’s traffic and pollution problems has been given crucial support by the Government, after it welcomed plans for the Bathampton park and rail scheme.
The Government has welcomed the Bath Transport Strategy which includes plans for the new railway station, dubbed Bathampton Parkway, with a large hidden car park.
This is the clearest indication yet that this scheme will get the green light, as it is a highly unusual step for the government to welcome a strategy, giving it implied support, at such an early stage.
The transport strategy includes a visionary Park & Rail scheme, which will mean that local residents and commuters arriving from the east of the city will avoid the current stop-start struggle into the city along London Road.
Instead they will be whisked into Bath in just 4 minutes on trains running four times an hour. A knock-on benefit to Bath residents will be significant reductions in traffic and pollution throughout the city.
There is more good news for residents plagued by cars and lorries rumbling through the city if the full scheme is approved.
The planned second phase of the scheme is a short concealed road linking the new Bathampton Parkway with the A36 so that north-south traffic currently going through Bath can completely bypass the city.
The Leader of B&NES Council, Paul Crossley, took up initial proposals from local civil engineer and council candidate Dorian Baker, and discussed them with Network Rail, the Highways Agency and central government.
The plans were included in the recently approved B&NES transport strategy “Getting Around Bath”.
Steve Bradley, the Lib Dem who hopes to succeed Don Foster as Bath’s MP, persuaded the Government to support the Park & Rail scheme.
Last week he took Nick Clegg to Bathampton and explained Bath’s desperate need for the schemes, and the government announcement is the result.
He commented: “I want to make Bath even better, and I believe that these schemes will make a massive difference to the everyday lives of people in and around the city.”
Leader of the Council, Paul Crossley, added: “This very positive announcement allows us to move to the next level with this project, one that the LibDems have championed from its inception. There will, of course, be full public consultation on these schemes.”
Speaking up for B&NES residents who live outside the city, Wera Hobhouse the LibDem candidate in NE Somerset said: “Bathampton Parkway Station will be a great help to people who live in the south or east of Bath.
“It will be much easier for them to get into the city or Bristol and beyond. To get a brand new station in our area is fantastic.”
