Traffic trial 'We're listening - and we will make changes'

COUNCIL leaders proposing Bristol's second ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ scheme have promised that their plans ‘will be changed’ as a consultation on the scheme nears its end.

- Alex SEABROOK &Tristan CORK

With growing concerns over the ‘zoning’ of Southville and Totterdown with controversial ‘modal filters; the man in charge of transport in the city told the Post he was listening to the feedback and changes would be made.

But Cllr Ed Plowden defended the use of ‘modal filters’ to create four traffic zones in Southville and a complicated one-way system in Totterdown, telling the Post that they were the most cost effective way of reducing the impact of traffic and meeting the Government targets on reducing pollution.

The final consultation of the South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood took place in Totterdown on Monday afternoon, with Cllr Ed Plowden (Green, Windmill Hill) attending, and hearing concerns from local residents and traders about the impact of a bus gate on St Luke’s Road, and creating a series of one-way streets in the ‘Totter-down Island’ warren of terraced streets on Pylle Hill.

The first inkling that Bristol City Council’s Green Party leaders would be making changes came on Friday, when Cllr Tony Dyer told a West of England combined authority meeting that he would be taking into account the issues raised throughout the consultation, most notably in Southville, where the creation of four ‘zones’ for residents with cars would mean one of the zones effectively ended up inside the Clean Air Zone on Coronation Road.

People will still be able to move between the four zones, but drivers will have to go a long way round via North Street or Coronation Road to get from one zone to another. Pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders can still travel between the individual zones.