Hotwells & Cliftonwood Community Association

Hotwells Traffic Strategy Report

This plan, following extensive consultation, has now been finalised and circulated to Bristol Councillors and officers. It is full of good ideas for changing traffic management in our area in ways that will improve the quality of life for local people without increasing congestion. We are asking that the plan should act as a strategic framework to guide transport investment and avoid the problem of ad-hoc decisions not contributing to the best long term solution for our community.

You can read the report or download it at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38826788/Hotwells-Traffic-Strategy

Hotwell Road bus layby improvements

One of the key suggestions in our Traffic Strategy is a relatively simple way of greatly improving the view for residents living on Hotwell Road in the zone just beyond the Rose of Denmark traffic lights. Here 3 lanes of traffic plus 2 lanes of parked vehicles create a car-dominated vista of unbroken tarmac where once was an avenue of trees leading to the Hotwells spa.
Evidently, our report has inspired some creative thinking amongst BCC transport engineers and with funding available from the Greater Bristol Bus Network pot, they have come up with a scheme not very dis-similar from our own. It involves filling-in the strange lay-by outside Carrick House and moving the bus stop to a more conventional place on the main road to allow buses easier movement in and out of the stop (and incidentally, enable waiting passengers and bus drivers to see each other which doesn't always happen at present).
This change, in turn enables new space to be made available for a better footpath and tree-planting to create a barrier between the houses and the road. The simplified junction with Hope Chapel Hill should be safer and easier for vehicles and pedestrians and 9 new parking spaces here will replace those lost from the layby (but will now only be accessible from Hope Chapel Hill and Dowry Square).
The design should increase the separation of Dowry Square from Hotwell Road by widening pavements and adding more trees without actually changing the existing access arrangements.
The main thing we don't get that was in the Traffic Strategy is a reduction from three lanes to two lanes of traffic on Hotwell Road. However, buses will now be stopping in the inside lane of traffic rather than off the road. The current half-hearted attempt at a cycle lane on the bend of the road seems to have disappeared on the new plan. This is one of the details that maybe needs more consideration.
Bristol City Council hopes to start work on this scheme as early as November, so it is important for you to feedback any comments you have about this proposal as soon as possible, either to admin@hotwellscliftonwood.org.uk, or direct to the Greater Bristol Bus Partnership project manager steven.riley@bristol.gov.uk.
You can download the plan here.

 

Residents' parking schemes - the first assessment

While the proposed residents’ parking scheme for Cliftonwood was set aside following the consultation last year, the pilot scheme in Kingsdown went ahead. The six month pilot period ended in June and the scheme has now become permanent.
Bristol City Council is now consulting four other areas of Bristol, which have expressed an interest in having a Residents Parking Scheme (RPS). It seems likely that such schemes will be introduced in St Pauls, Redcliffe, Easton/St Phiips and Cotham in 2012, once approved by their Neighbourhood Partnerships.
In May the Council asked for comments about the pilot scheme in Kingsdown. The transport officers report to Cabinet in July included the following:
“In May 2011, a letter was sent to each property within the RPS area to invite feedback about the scheme. This generated a very positive response. 216 responses were received, of which 146 were positive comments about the scheme, 10 were negative and 60 were requesting minor amendments”.
Stephen Perry attended the Neighbourhood Forum in Cotham in October. At that meeting the Lib Dem councillor for that ward, Neil Harrison, asked if anyone was opposed to an RPS in Cotham. No one spoke in opposition, while several asked that the scheme as proposed be extended to a larger area than shown in the Council’s plan.
Richard Bland, of Cliftonwood and Hotwells Improvement Society, went to Kingsdown to see for himself how the pilot was working. He reported in their magazine: “the results are spectacular. During the day there are plenty of parking spaces available for residents or their visitors or tradesmen. It looks like Clifton did in the 1960s. Furthermore there is easy access for rubbish collection lorries, who do not have to block whole roads, and for emergency services .... there are no commuter cars, as the system operates from 9:00 am- 5 pm on weekdays ... there have been grumbles from businesses that they weren’t fully consulted, and there is a case for more pay and display areas during the day .... Please go and look, and then start a campaign for a scheme in Clifton. Of course our problems are not the same, but our lives could be transformed.”
Cllr Barbara Janke says it would not be right to bring the question of an RPS in Cliftonwood back to the table now, so soon after the negative vote last year.
If you have any comments on this or any other traffic issue please send them to the HCCA office. We are still looking for someone interested in reviving CHASE to look at traffic issues in our area.