Another guest blog, today from John Taylor, a resident in the Charmouth / Lyme Road Liveable Neighbourhood (LN) area on the approach roads to Newbridge School.

Walk Ride Bath is 100% in support of the LN programme. There seems to be some differing interpretations of what LNs look like in reality, but for us there is one central requirement:

An LN has to have a modal filter for motor vehicles

This could be planters, bollards, a timed entry enforced with cameras… but there has to be a filter. We feel this because only by significantly reducing vehicles numbers will the phenomenal safety gains be achieved- around 85% reduction in pedestrian injuries. So it is somewhat mystifying that given the issues highlighted by residents which largely relate to the behaviour of people visiting the area by car (completely focussed on school drop off/pick up) a one-way system for motor vehicles has been proposed. LNs typically seek to remove through traffic from residential streets, yet what is planned is to make it as easy as possible for through traffic.

One-way systems typically increase vehicle speed too (by removing oncoming vehicles) and there is not space to safely include a cycling contraflow without it being in the lethal ‘door zone’ of parked vehicles. So it is hard to see any reductions in road danger from the current scheme.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. There is a solution that maintains access for residents at all times, removes visitor vehicles and all their related ills, and makes a safe haven for children outside their school gates. It is successfully used in cities throughout the UK and is now being rolled out in nearby towns such as Frome.

School Street anyone?

Further details on the school streets website

Over to John!

We have lived on Charmouth Road in Newbridge, Bath since 1986 and like to think that we know our neighbourhood well. Newbridge Primary School is situated at the end of Charmouth Road. A residents’ parking zone was introduced in February 2023. In December 2023 residents of Charmouth Road, Lyme Road, Lyme Gardens and the adjacent stretch of Newbridge Road received a Liveable Neighbourhood letter from BANES proposing to remove some of the newly introduced parking bays and trial a one way system from spring 2024. The one question on everyone’s lips locally is “why?” 

BANES has been brave in facing up to the climate emergency and tackling congestion and air pollution. I had hoped that its Liveable Neighbourhood programme could be part of its ‘journey to net zero’, but I now find myself in the unenviable position of being unable to support the current proposal because they will not result in my community becoming more ‘liveable’.

There is one simple issue here: dangerous, inconsiderate and sometimes illegal driving and parking at the start and end of the school day (see the photographs- parking on corners, crossing points blocked, delivery vehicles trapped). Local objections can be summed up easily:

1. Introducing a one way system for motorised traffic without any traffic calming will INCREASE SPEED on a school street. The knowledge that the road is one way will worsen that driver behaviour.

2. Removing parking bays to increase visibility for two way cycling will not make cycling safer, because at school times drivers IGNORE ALL PARKING RESTRICTIONS and will park in the places where bays have been removed. The parking restrictions are not enforced during drop off/pick up times anyway. (Editor note: 2 way cycling cannot be accommodated within the space constraints anyway-see introduction)

3. The council has produced no evidence to show how this scheme will improve residents’ lives. For instance, how does it stop people sitting for up to 45 minutes with their engines idling as they wait for their children?

4. The council has not held a consultation with all residents about this specific proposal.

I complained about the scheme in December 2023 and asked to speak to an appropriate council officer. That request wasn’t granted until April 2024. I was left totally unconvinced after my 35 minute telephone discussion (the invitation to visit the site during the school run time was declined). You could address the above four objections in a different way. How can this scheme claim to be part of a Liveable Neighbourhood plan if it doesn’t meet any published criteria anywhere to make the road:

a) safer

b) reduce car dependency

c) promote active travel (walking, wheeling & cycling)

d) improve air quality

e) improve the public realm

f) eventually become a school street

Personally I am so disappointed that I am unable to support the LN programme in its current form. There are still opportunities to deliver features such as continuous footways at the Newbridge Road junctions and traffic islands to aid crossing and stop people using the wrong side of the road when cutting the corner.

But as things stand, we are going one-way in the wrong direction. Is it too late to change course?