A 93-signature petition opposing the proposed implementation of a scheme that would see traffic banned from turning left of the A38 Gloucester Road into Shellmor Avenue has been handed to South Gloucestershire Council (SGC)
The move comes just a week before the end of a public consultation on the traffic regulation order for the £15,000 scheme, and follows an earlier consultation where residents were asked to choose between five alternative proposals, ranging from completely blocking off Shellmor Avenue at its junction with Gloucester Road to doing nothing.
The petition was handed to SGC Highway Engineer Mark Parry at last week’s meeting of the Patchway Safer and Stronger Community Group, where several residents of Stoke Lodge voiced their concerns about the effect the scheme could have on other roads in the area, particularly Stoke Lane.
Opponents of the scheme complained that earlier consultations by Stoke Lodge ward Councillors had been restricted to residents of Shellmor Avenue.
Stoke Lane will have to bear the brunt of the extra traffic that previously accessed Shellmor Avenue from Gloucester Road and increased congestion will occur at the Stoke Lodge mini-roundabout if the scheme is implemented, claim the objectors.
Opponents also pointed out that several accidents have occurred in recent years along Stoke Lane and on the slip road leading off the A38, whereas there had been none in Shellmor Avenue itself.
Should the scheme go ahead, some residents of Stoke Lane who oppose it warned that they would demonstrate their anger by parking their cars on the road (rather than on their drives), in order to disrupt the flow of traffic.
Labour Patchway Town Councillors attending the meeting pointed out that there had been no overall majority (>50% of opinions expressed) for any of the proposed schemes, with the selected ‘option 1′ attracting 41% – only slightly ahead of ‘option 4′ (introduce traffic calming) at 32%.
Cllr Chris Mills proposed that the Town Council organise a residents’ meeting, as was done for the recently resolved Hempton Lane waiting restrictions issue, in the hope of finding a consensus that could be put to SGC on behalf of all residents in the area. Other Councillors agreed that the idea should be discussed at this week’s meeting of the Town Council’s Planning Committee.
SGC also has plans in the pipeline to improve the junction of Stoke Lane and Shellmor Avenue junction, following complaints about the difficulty experienced by vehicles turning left into Shellmor Avenue. The November 2011 meeting of the Southern Brooks Area Forum allocated £5,000 for investigatory work and this has now been supplemented with an allocation of a further £10,000 in SGC’s 2012/2013 Local transport Capital Programme to cover the implementation of a scheme.
Photo: Junction of Shellmor Avenue and Gloucester Road, where it is proposed that the left turn into Shellmor Avenue be prohibited.
Feel sorry for the ones that didnt want the change to happen and now have to drive all the way around to get into there street
I don’t. It’s on a dual carriageway and my experience is that it causes problems in rush hour with people braking hard and late/not indicating etc etc.
Not to mention it’s also used as a “rat run” (ooooo it’s like Highwood Road all over..) by many people who don’t live in shellmoor avenue but want to cut 2-3 mins off their journey to Little Stoke/Stoke Gifford or beyond…
still feel sorry for the people that live there and dont want it, but hey thats life we cant all have what we want
Some points of clarifications
The petition is based on half truths it was never mentioned that the funding has already been allocated and the work at the stoke lane end of Shellmor Ave would be completed before the left hand turn ban he work to be done
Shellmore ave is now a run on a daily basic with well over a 1000 car per day entering from the A38
This campaign to improve the traffic issues in Shellmore Ave has been on going for 12 years
My concern is purely based on health and safety grounds and quality of life
I have yet to hear a compelling argument to keep Shellmor Ave open only valid reasons to ban left turn from A38
There doesn’t appear to be a significant problem, so why fix something that ain’t broke? At considerable cost to the taxpayer.
As a cyclists’ representative, I was consulted over this scheme, and was horrified that out of the four proposals, only one considered cyclists, completely counter to SGlos transport policies. I was later assured that the other three would include cyclists, and that it was “inconceivable” that they wouldn’t. As anyone who has had anything to do with the SGlos highways department over the past fifteen years will confirm, it’s not only conceivable, but highly likely. If the other proposals do include cycle facilities which weren’t shown on the plans, then the consultation was a farce and people have been commenting on plans that were anything but accurate.
The simplest, cheapest and most effective solution is to make Shellmor Avenue and all the roads leading off it a 20mph zone, but this wasn’t presented as an option. This would address safety concerns, reduce through traffic and would maintain access, and it’s frankly astonishing that the SGlos planners didn’t consider it or offer it as an option. They appear to be twenty years out of date, so they have improved considerably over the past few years.
I like your thinking Richard.
You make some extremely valid points that have been alarmingly overlooked.
This has been a very contentious issue, largely dealt with by my colleagues, but we all attended an extremely angry residents meeting where this was again voted on by the key surrounding roads and the SGC decision was again ratified by a clear majority of support for it.
I was further astonished by further anger over the process by those who had ‘won’ on the night let alone those who had lost.
The most informed campaigner for this who has been driving for this in SGC for the last 12 years is my PTC colleague Brian Hopkinson of Stoke Lodge, I will mail him to let him know this debate has been raised here by you out of courtesy to him.
From the minutes of the meeting of Patchway Town Council on 12th June 2012:
“Cllr. Mills presented the minutes of the meeting held on 22 May which had been circulated and which were endorsed by the Council. It was noted that SGC would not be taking a decision on Shellmor Avenue until their September meeting. Cllr. Hopkinson stated that the delay had been caused by officers not preparing their report due to changes in staffing and that this was very disappointing.”