Road planners back down after villagers oppose junction ideas

PLANS for a major scheme to ease congestion at a notorious bottleneck at a World Heritage site in West Yorkshire have been amended after feedback from nearby residents.

Earlier this year, plans were revealed to replace Saltaire roundabout with traffic lights.

Transport planners said this would allow better traffic management through the village, with priorities changing at the busiest times.

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However, after a consultation exercise that drew almost 300 written responses, the proposals have been amended.

John Blackburn, assistant director of Bradford Council's transportation and highways service, said: "The aims of the scheme are to provide a small amount of additional capacity, allow public transport to operate better through the junction and provide better pedestrian safety. The key aim of the scheme is to manage traffic through Saltaire.

"The consultation threw up some key issues for local residents, particularly in Nab Wood."

The original proposal had included simplifying the junction by banning three turns – from Bingley Road into Moorhead Lane and the turns between Bingley Road (Gordon Terrace) and Saltaire Road.

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But many people feared that banning the turn onto Moorhead Lane would increase the amount of traffic on residential streets travelling too fast.

The alternative now being consider will allow the right turn from Bingley Road to Moorhead Lane – one of the main concerns identified during the consultation.

A report to be considered by the Council's Shipley area committee tomorrow says: "In order to accommodate this movement within the junction layout it was necessary to slightly increase the capacity of the junction by providing additional feeder lanes on Bingley Road (West) and Bingley Road (East) leading up to the junction. It was also necessary to separate the pedestrian crossing from the junction at Hirst Lane.

"Detailed modelling of the operation of this revised proposal using a local computer based traffic simulation system has shown that this proposal also slightly improves journey times for general traffic and buses throughout the area. Additional benefits are also derived for pedestrians as a result of the increased and improved crossing points."

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Altogether, 294 written responses about the proposed scheme were received by Bradford Council.

Of those, 35 per cent felt the proposal was "good"; 32 per cent rated it "fair" and 22 per cent deemed it "poor."

The report says: "Despite the overall acceptance of the provision of traffic signals at the junction there were some key concerns highlighted by respondents which the transport planning section felt warranted further consideration."

Respondents' concerns included rat running and increased traffic on residential streets; road safety for pedestrians; speed of traffic, routing of Heavy Goods Vehicles traffic along Hirst Lane and concerns about "not improving congestion."

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The changes are likely to cost between 2m and 3m but a further 1.3m could be available.

This would pay for complementary measures such as traffic calming in Hurst Wood and a 20mph zone to reduce rat running in Saltaire Village.

Measures to slow down drivers, wherever they are in the Nab Wood area, could include Bankfield Drive between New Close Road and Moorhead Lane.

When they meet tomorrow, the committee members will be asked to indicate to the traffic planners which measure they think should get priority.