Residents who blocked a planned liveable neighbourhood over child safety concerns have warned that the danger still exists, as the council now plans to press on with the scheme.
There are continued plans to block Winifred’s Lane to through traffic
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s plan to close Winifred’s Lane at the top of Cavendish Road to through traffic was blocked in August, after it did not contest a legal challenge from a group of locals. But the local authority is now issuing a new order to bring in the scheme.
The group that brought the original challenge has criticised the move to bring it back.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The council has made no changes to the design of the Winifred’s Lane ETRO [experimental traffic regulation order], despite our best efforts to explain the dangers and seek compromise.”
The plan will see bollards installed across Winifred’s Lane, at the top of Cavendish Road, with a “no right turn” sign to stop people turning from Cavendish Road onto Sion Hill.
This would take traffic away from Lansdown Crescent, one of the city’s most expensive streets, but the group have warned it will just push more traffic around residential roads in Sion Hill, along busy Morford Street, and past children’s schools.
Closing the road to through traffic is part of the council’s programme of liveable neighbourhoods, also called low traffic neighbourhoods, or LTNs, which aim to make roads safer and more pleasant for walking and cycling.
It is part of the Lower Lansdown and Circus Area Liveable Neighbourhood which would also include stopping through traffic on Catharine Place and a major overhaul of Gay Street.
The council stated at the time of the legal challenge that they would bring the scheme back “as soon as possible”.
It stated it did not contest the legal challenge because of “minor technical issues” with their scheme and because they had missed their slot with the contractors.
Now the council has set a date of Wednesday 6th November to install the works to close the road.
The liveable neighbourhood will be in place on a trial basis which will last for at least six months.
The spokesperson for the group who brought the legal challenge warned: “It’s clear that the same issues as previously identified will persist: much more traffic will likely now pass two junior schools and children being walked to school; local residents will be forced to access their homes via more dangerous routes; those living on other unclassified roads in the area should expect redirected traffic; and the much greater distances involved in the alternative routes for necessary journeys mean this can be expected to contribute to increased levels of carbon emissions.”
They added: “Ultimately, this scheme benefits one group of residents over and above those living in poorer socio-economic areas. Ironically, the BANES LTN strategy paper says: ‘Low traffic neighbourhoods are not about rewarding one group of people while punishing another.’
“Very sadly it appears that key BANES councillors don’t actually believe this.”
After the plans to close Winifred’s Lane were announced in January, one representative of a neighbouring residents association said: “The council seems willing to sacrifice the health and safety of school children and thousands of Bath residents to extend the privilege of a few extremely privileged people on Lansdown Crescent.”
To date, over 3,300 people have signed a petition against closing Winifred’s Lane.
Announcing last week that the scheme was being brought back, the council’s cabinet member for highways Cllr Manda Rigby said: “Motorists often use the trial streets to avoid the main roads linking the south of Bath to the A46/A420/M4, so the aim is to address speeding and excessive through traffic in these central, residential areas.
“We also want to create a safe and pleasant active travel route through the area.
“I want to reassure residents and businesses that vehicle access to properties will be maintained during the trials, although some drivers may have to use a different route.
“We currently have other liveable neighbourhood schemes in place, and these have shown us that the best method of consulting on through-traffic changes is via an ETRO.
“It gives us time to monitor the impacts of the scheme and for people to respond to the interventions, having experienced the scheme, before we make a final decision on whether to make them permanent.”
The council had originally planned to bring in 15 liveable neighbourhoods across the city, but this has been cut back to 11 due to “funding constraints” and the impact of inflation on construction costs.
At the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in September, a top councillor from the Liberal Democrat-run council read out a message in a speech to the conference from the council’s deputy leader stating: “We need more powers to be able to shut roads without quite so much ability for legal challenge.”
The new ETRO notices for the Lower Lansdown scheme were published on 24th October and a copy with a map and a statement of reasons may be inspected at B&NES’ One Stop Shops at The Hollies, Midsomer Norton; 3-4 Manvers Street, Bath; and at the Keynsham Civic Centre, Market Walk, Keynsham during normal office hours.
They can also be viewed online at https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk/lansdownetro.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
