Vox pop: Highwood Road closure

Your views: Patchway vox pop.

The closure of Highwood Road in Patchway has caused a lot of controversy. Many local people have had to change their route to work or have been affected by diverted traffic, and the petition to keep the road open has so far been ignored by South Gloucestershire Council.

So how has this change affected the daily lives of people living in Patchway? We thought it was time to ask local residents to share their experiences. Here are three responses from people in your area.

Kyle Millard.Kyle Millard: “I’m very unhappy as this road closure has made my journey to work much longer. This has just moved traffic around instead of reducing it. There’s three times as much traffic now going through Coniston Road. I think it’s OK to build new houses, but people living near Coniston Road shouldn’t be bombarded by the extra traffic.”

Claire Broadbent.Claire Broadbent: “I actually live on Coniston Road and I can tell you that traffic on that road has increased. If I go to work from nine to five then there is a lot of traffic! It isn’t noticeable at certain times of the day, but during rush hour it’s very obvious that the road has become much busier.”

Paul Buckley.Paul Buckley: “The closure of Highwood Road appears to be nonsensical because Coniston Road is dealing with too much traffic now. I think that a lot of people are taking longer routes to work, spending more on petrol (which is not good for the environment), and they’re having to rush to work, possibly going over the speed limit!”

Do you agree with the views above? Perhaps you see the closure of Highwood Road as a benefit rather than a drawback. Some people we spoke to said they liked Hayes Way (the new road between the A38 and The Mall) and didn’t mind the road closure, whilst others felt very frustrated by it. How has the road closure affected you? We’d like to hear your views and comments! Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment below and participating in the discussion!

South Gloucestershire Council is currently running a six-month public consultation on the “experimental” closure of Highwood Road. Comments can be made by post or email before Friday 19th April 2013.

14 comments

  1. Can I encourage all those people with a comment/s concerning the Experimental!! closure of Highwood Road to make their opinions/comments known to SGC by way of the Cosultation Process as soon as possible. Don’t leave it too late for your opioion to be considered.

  2. My home faces Conistion Road near the Junction of Highwood Road. One evening I counted the number of vehicles passing my home for 25 minutes, between 5.35 pm and 6.00 pm – total of 318 vehicles went by.

    It continues to increase every day with heavy goods vehicles, once they get passed the Rock Roundabout they are committed with nowhere to turn around and therefore head along Coniston Road.

    The Question which needs to be asked is – Why was the Council so determined to close Highwood Road when it makes no sense.

    If only one side of Highwood Road was reopened that would still be three times the distance from the traffic to the new homes front door. Whereas its just 8 metres from my front door.

  3. It would be interesting to know how many buses use the new bus lane, and the average number of people on the buses.

    As I have not seen one bus use it as yet, I have only seen the 75, which uses Coniston Road.

    If they wanted a bus lane then they should have used the Charlton Hayes side of the old dual carriage way for it, and the Patchway side as for all other traffic. That would have suited all parties

  4. Ten buses an hour in each direction us the bus lane – services 73, 74, 309 & 319. Additionally the X73 runs this way during the peak hours.

    Please note – I’m not supporting the closure but feel that those who have no use for buses are made aware of the facts.

  5. Colin, do you use any of the buses? If so, do you think the bus lane has affected reliability of the above services, and have you noticed whether more people are using them?

    I gave up using the buses after 10 years and two of the reasons for this was because they were unreliable and expensive.

    I do not support the closure – and am concerned about the increased traffic levels through Patchway, but it would also be interesting to see what effects the bus lane has had on the services that use it.

  6. I have never got this it seems that now the traffic is more on Coniston road people are moaning about how much goes passed their homes ,but what about other roads like Callicroft /Rodway that was always busy at the lights and nobody moaned about that .We can’t always have nice quite roads anymore due to the amount of cars on the road .

  7. Jen:

    I do not use the bus as it does not run at the times, or to the location I require – I need to be at Bristol Parkway station by 0600 ot get home from there from after 2300 – therefore not within the normal hours of bus operation on that particulat axis. I was mereley pointing out to Jim the number of buses timetabled to use the bus lae, as I find it quite suprising that he had not seen one use it.

    However, my wife is a regular bus user along the bus lane. She has not mentioned any effect on journey times. However, I think that as the road, if reopened would not be a dual carriageway, the effect of cars once again using this route would lead to a detrimental effect on the running times of buses.

    I am a car user but this is due to the nature of my commuting patterns and would certainly use the bus if it were available at the times I require and along the route I use. I have a personal interest in public transport as a hobby and certainly advocate its use.

  8. its started,last week there was an incident in rodway rd and today there was another incident in coniston rd .two accidents in the space of ten days,i hope sgc are ready for a backlash when something serious happens because it is only a matter of time.

  9. Callicroft, unless the accidents involve pedestrians, directing traffic down a different road should not cause more accidents! Just means people can’t drive, no matter what road they are on!

  10. Car crashes happen everywhere Callicroft. Other people have said the Rodway Road shops will die because no-one can drive down from “the trees” part of Patchway…

    You can’t have it all ways. Maybe both incidents were just due to driver error, and not the closure of Highwood Road.

  11. i think more cars darting in and out of traffic will lead to problems,try driving down durban rd and you will see for yourself and i am not interested in the i dont drive that way,plenty of people do.as far as the situation of shops shutting in the mall,i and plenty round me dont go there unless we have to due to the massive circle we have to do,coniston or the ring road,it makes no difference.

  12. read the post properly,yet another mention of an accident on the corner of highwood lane and coniston road thats the third time it has mentioned coniston,. rodway and highwood lane on radio bristol in the last ten days,never heard of until they changed roads,anyone who listens to radio bristol will confirm this.

  13. Callicroft is right. Since the closure of Highwood Rd Radio Bristol frequently mentions car accidents at Rodway or Coniston Rd. Never heard it before the closure.

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