The Bath residents behind a legal challenge which halted plans to install bollards across roads in their neighbourhood have said they were left with “no choice” but to take the council to court.
Catharine Place in Bath | Photo © John Wimperis
Bath & North East Somerset Council planned to close three roads around the lower Lansdown area of the city, including Winifred’s Lane, to through traffic as part of its liveable neighbourhood programme, also known as a Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN).
The plan was intended to make streets safer and more pleasant for cycling and walking, but locals warned that closing Winifred’s Lane would dangerously push displaced traffic past children’s schools and applied for an injunction.
The case was supposed to go before the High Court on Thursday 8th August, but the council announced the day before that it would not contest the case as the delay it caused had made it impossible to deliver the scheme, whatever the outcome.
The upper end of Gay Street in Bath, looking up to the Circus | Photo © John Wimperis
The council says it will try to implement another experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) for the scheme in the future but the residents who brought the challenge have urged the council to engage more with them before doing so.
In a statement following the council’s decision to not contest the legal challenge, a spokesman for the group said: “The council’s proposed scheme to close Winifred’s Lane upset hundreds of Lansdown residents.
“A petition against the scheme was signed by over 2,800 people and tens of thousands of pounds were raised to fight the scheme through the courts.
“It’s hoped that the council has now recognised the strength of feeling against this specific ETRO.
“While we’re not against the idea of LTNs generally, this specific one was dangerous in terms of safety – not least given it would have increased traffic past two junior schools and onto unsafe junctions – environmentally detrimental and had not been discussed and consulted on fairly with residents.
“Despite numerous written requests, meetings with councillors and council officials, FOI requests, and suggesting much more practical alternatives to reduce speeding in the area, our views were not listened to. Consequently, we had no choice but to take the legal route, which gave us no pleasure.
“While the council seek to characterise the failures of the ETRO as ‘minor technical issues,’ we do not agree with this assessment.
“The technical failures which the council accepts reflect its questionable attitude to applicable law, ignoring rights of residents, driving unsafe outcomes with indecent haste, and failing to engage with a thoughtful and well-supported community group.
“And BANES’ tactical decision not to contest the challenge prevented the court from reviewing BANES’ conduct and plans in detail.”
There has been repeated controversy over the level of community engagement when Bath & North East Somerset Council has brought in liveable neighbourhoods.
Co-design workshops were carried out with people on the streets to design the schemes, but on multiple occasions people on other streets near the closed roads which may be affected have said they knew little about what was happening.
The group warned that the council’s “failure to engage” and to not contest the court case had led to Bathonian’s money being wasted.
They said: “Bath residents’ money will have been wasted when it could have been properly used to help local communities, address inequality and homelessness, or improve transport networks for those who are physically unable to walk or cycle.”
Their statement added: “If the council chooses to look again at an LTN for our neighbourhood, we hope that it will engage with us to find a solution which is to the benefit of all and not just the few.”
The council said that putting the scheme on pause for the hearing had caused it to lose its slot with the contractors set to install the bollards, which it said had been “carefully scheduled” to take place during the school holidays and avoid other work on the road networks.
The council had originally planned to begin the work on Monday 5th August.
When the council announced it was not contesting the case, Manda Rigby, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “We thank the residents involved for raising the issues that they have now so we can rectify any needing further clarification before proceeding.
“We will be bringing forward a new ETRO in the very near future. We are committed to the delivery of our Liveable Neighbourhoods programme which aims to bring significant health and wellbeing benefits to our communities.”
As well as closing Winifred’s Lane to through traffic, the plans would also see bollards installed across Catharine Place and a major overhaul of the Gay Street, blocking through traffic from passing the junction with George Street.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
