Future of Transport - Bradford on Avon Town Council

At Full Council on 24 September, Bradford on Avon Town Council unanimously approved a traffic scheme to recommend to Wiltshire Council.

The town council has worked closely with Wiltshire Council throughout the process.

Earlier this summer, we met with Councillor Nick Holder, cabinet member for Highways at Wiltshire Council, who highlighted that any motion must show an ‘overall level of local support’.

After a thorough debate and hearing questions and comments from the public, the town council agreed to:

Bradford on Avon Town Council recommends Wiltshire Council to design a scheme on an experimental traffic order with the ability to be made permanent, and which will be assessed continually against our top priority of pedestrian safety, which has:

20mph speed limits throughout the town

wider pavements being prioritised and maximised throughout the scheme, particularly at the bottom of Silver Street and the top of Market Street

one-way traffic east to west on Silver Street

two-way traffic on Masons Lane

serious consultative mitigation measures put in place from the start in any areas negatively impacted

transparent consultation with emergency services, local bus services and local schools on the impacts of any scheme.

We are open to exploring both one-way and priority shuttle working at the top of market street, and would welcome guidance from expert Wiltshire Council highway engineers as to which system it would be most beneficial to our priorities to put in place first on a trial basis.

After the meeting, Councillor Jack Vittles, Mayor of Bradford on Avon said: “I am delighted that as a town council we have voted unanimously for change in the town with a new traffic scheme.

“Traffic is a decades-long problem in Bradford on Avon, and this is the culmination of a thorough and consultative process over the last few years.

“I really want to thank all residents and town councillors for their engagement and considered thoughts on this topic throughout the process.

“I am particularly happy we have addressed our top priority of pedestrian safety with an emphasis on significantly wider pavements and reducing the speed limit in the town.

“We have also emphatically recommended that any mitigations required for areas that could be potentially negatively impacted by the scheme will be on the ground from the start.

“We now look forward to working closely with Wiltshire Council in designing a scheme that makes this recommendation a reality for everyone in the town.

“Wiltshire Council remains responsible for the roads and pavements in Bradford on Avon – and their knowledge and expertise will be essential for the detailed design work and consultation that happens next.

“Our recommendation of a trial on the pinch point at the top of Market Street is one area we’d very much welcome their guidance.

“I will be writing to Wiltshire Council in the coming days to set up a meeting as soon as possible to start work on the design phase.”

This resolution will now be submitted to Wiltshire Council to develop and design a traffic scheme for Bradford on Avon.

You can read the comments the final traffic comments in full below:

Final comments on traffic in Bradford on Avon (pdf)

Letter from Mayor of Bradford on Avon to Wiltshire Council (pdf)

Letter to Wiltshire Council May 2024

Councillor Jack Vittles, Mayor of Bradford on Avon has written to the Wiltshire Council cabinet members for Transport and Assets, and Highways, Street Scene and Flooding on behalf of the town council.

The letter asks for answers to questions about the recent traffic modelling report, posed by town councillors and members of the public at Full Council on 7 May.

In his letter, Councillor Vittles also requested a meeting between the 2 cabinet members, Councillors Nick Holder and Tamara Reay, and all town councillors about the future of transport in Bradford on Avon.

The letter asked for clarification on:

the use of bus gates and future scheduling issues
potential options for trialling any of the schemes
Wiltshire Council future plans to reduce traffic volume in Bradford on Avon and the local area
long-term plans to reduce traffic volumes and improve air quality regionally.

You can read the full letter below:

Letter from Mayor, Councillor Jack Vittles to Wiltshire Council Cabinet May 2024 (pdf)

We are awaiting the full results of the recent engagement exercise which closed on Sunday 12 May.

Traffic modelling report & executive summary

This report, by traffic consultants Atkins, explains the anticipated impact of new traffic management models for Bradford on Avon.

Bradford on Avon Traffic Study – executive summary report (pdf)

Bradford on Avon Traffic Study Report (pdf)

The town council organised 2 public engagement events with experts from Atkins. A survey on the traffic study was held at the beginning of 2024 – town council officers are currently collating the responses and then will analyse the data from the survey.

Once this is done, we will be in a position to report to councillors and provide updates when it is appropriate.

Background

What was the Future of Transport consultation?

The Future of Transport consultation launched in late 2021 as an exercise in collecting data and comments on traffic in Bradford on Avon.

The results of the Future of Transport consultation have been compiled by Bristol based company, Copper Consultancy.

We have release the raw data (with all personal information removed). When analysing this data please take extreme caution.

What were the results of the consultation?

Over 2,700 people responded to the consultation and identified three key priorities; pedestrian and cyclist safety, air quality and traffic volume.

On Tuesday, 29 March the Sustainable Transport Committee met to discuss the results of the Future of Transport consultation and agreed to send the Copper Consultancy report to the highways department at Wiltshire Council.

Traffic modelling objectives

The town council was fully involved in setting the specification for the modelling and at the time of writing has recently held an initial scoping meeting with the company doing the work on behalf of Wiltshire Council.

Bradford on Avon Traffic Study Modelling (pdf)

The modelling exercise follows the Future of Transport consultation held in late 2021/early 2022 and is looking for ways to address the key priorities that emerged from that report: traffic volume, pedestrian and cyclist safety and air quality.

Since the consultation

The report was sent to Wiltshire Council, alongside a covering letter, asking Wiltshire Council to use the data to inform any future traffic scheme.

On Thursday, 28 April, Bradford on Avon Town Council received a letter from Wiltshire Council saying the town council’s priorities had been considered and asking for clarification of the type of scheme the town council would support.

At the annual town council meeting on Tuesday 3 May, councillors unanimously agreed that the approach outlined did reflect the town council’s wishes as an appropriate response to views of residents expressed in the survey.

Councillors added that they were keen to see mitigations in those areas likely to see an increased volume of traffic from a scheme involving one-way traffic embedded in any scheme from the beginning.

We organised a meeting with Michelle Donelan MP and the then Wiltshire Council cabinet member for highways, Cllr Dr Mark McClelland, to discuss the progress on developing a new traffic solution for Bradford on Avon.

There it was stated that the town council should pay for 66% of the cost for a traffic modelling exercise.

The meeting was held on Friday 25 November at the town council office.

In March 2023, Councillors agreed to contribute the funding with the aim that our three priorities are central to any traffic solution.

Councillor Tim Trimble wrote to Councillor Caroline Thomas, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, to confirm our decision.