Town asked for final traffic comments ahead of crucial meeting

Full council meeting – Tuesday 24 September at 7pm – to decide what future traffic scheme to ask Wiltshire Council to design for Bradford on Avon.

The meeting will take place in St Margaret’s Hall and will be live streamed on the town council’s YouTube channel.

The town council is asking for your final thoughts on traffic ahead of the Full Council meeting in St Margaret’s Hall on Tuesday 24 September.

At the meeting, councillors will describe their requirements and ambitions for the town’s traffic scheme taking residents’ views into account.

The traffic consultation of 2021 to 2022 identified 3 priorities for the town:

• reduced traffic volume
• improved pedestrian and cyclist safety
• improved air quality.

Wiltshire Council said they are not able to put measures in place to directly reduce or limit the volume of traffic in the town because that would require a much larger project.

Traffic consultants, AtkinsRéalis modelled 3 different traffic schemes – of which A and C have attracted the most interest. Both options A and C included significant pavement widening in the town centre and a provision for the bus service (a so-called bus gate).

• option A involved one-way on Silver Street and Market Street
• option C involved one-way on Silver Street and priority for uphill traffic on Market Street.

Atkins’ report recommended option C based on their assessments of how well each scheme met the community’s priorities. We published Atkins’ report and invited your feedback on the report and its recommendation.

Nearly 1,000 people and households responded to Atkins’ report. You said:

• only 30% of those responding felt option C was suitable
• 58% considered it unsuitable – and when asked why, over 400 people said they favoured a one-way system closer to the scheme that was in place during the COVID pandemic
• people reiterated the importance of improvements and safety for pedestrians
• there was also uncertainty and anxiety about the idea of a bus gate.

We’ve shared your feedback with Wiltshire Council. And following these conversations, Wiltshire Council has confirmed that:

• they will be happy to design and cost a traffic scheme based on the town council’s decision about what to do next
• they will consider a scheme without the bus gate.

What happens next?

We’re planning to discuss the new traffic scheme at the Full Council meeting on Tuesday 24 September 2024.

At that meeting, councillors will describe their requirements and ambitions for the town’s traffic scheme taking residents’ views into account. They will then then vote to ask Wiltshire Council to design a scheme to meet these requirements.

Get in touch

Thank you to everyone for their feedback on Atkins’ report.

If you have any further thoughts on the traffic in the town, you can submit your comments and questions on the town council website by Wednesday 16 September.

If you have any difficulties completing the online form, please call us on 01225 864 240 or come and see us at our Kingston House office and we’ll do our best to help.

Find out more

There’s more information on the town council website, including information about the Future of Transport consultation in 2021 that has shaped this project, the Atkins report, the options it modelled and the results of the engagement that followed.

Please note that we will not be accepting attachments or supporting documents at this time. Thank you for your understanding.