LTN blocked over children’s safety fears will now go ahead
A controversial liveable neighbourhood in Bath which was blocked by a legal challenge due to children’s safety concerns will now go ahead in November.
Bath and North Somerset Council first planned to close Winifred’s Lane at the top of Cavendish Road to through traffic in August. But the scheme was blocked by a legal challenge from neighbours who warned it would be “dangerous” as it would push more traffic onto unsafe junctions and past schools.
The council insisted it would bring back the plans “as soon as possible” and has now set a date of Wednesday November 6 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.
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The closure of Winifred’s Lane to through traffic is part of a wider “Lower Lansdown area” liveable neighbourhood. It will also see a no-right-turn into Sion Hill East at the same junction, and include a major overhaul of Gay Street, and a through traffic restriction on Catharine Place. Work on Catharine Place will take place on Friday November 1, while the work on Gay Street will take place on Monday November 4 and Tuesday November 5.
People in the area had sought a high court injunction and said they had “no choice” as the council had not listened to their concerns. Over 3,300 have to date people signed a petition against the plans.
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.”
The council did not contest the legal challenge, stating there had been “minor technical issues” with the order to bring the scheme in and they had missed their slots with the contractors. Announcing today that the scheme would be going ahead, a council statement said: “The trials were due to start in August but were put on hold to address a procedural error in legal notices which have now been fixed.”
Now a new experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) has been made to bring the scheme back in. The council’s cabinet member for highways 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 controversial liveable neighbourhood scheme on Sydney Road is currently in place on a trial period. Other liveable neighbourhoods on Church Road and Southlands in Bath, and on Queen Charlton Road near Whitchurch were brought in as trials but have now been made permanent.
There has been community engagement on liveable neighbourhoods since 2021, with the design of schemes happening in “co-design” workshops with people on the streets. But people in nearby areas have warned they have not been consulted.
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.
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.”
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 will be published on October 24 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 here.