The City Council is once again consulting on new proposals for the part of Heaton west of Heaton Road. This follows on from the removal of the low traffic measures earlier in 2024 that were installed on an experimental basis towards the end of 2022.
If you need a reminder of what we had for a brief time you can look back and read our article on how the changes improved the area here.
You can read our article looking back at the reasons given to remove the experimental scheme and the option which would have fixed problems with it here.
What’s happening now?
The Council is now consulting on a completely new set of proposals. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service in Chronicle Live Marion Williams, the Cabinet member with responsibility for transport said “We need to use the learning from the trials that were implemented, to ask what the problem is that we are trying to solve here”.
It isn’t clear how any proposals can be developed if the problem they are addressing isn’t already known, but as the question has been asked we will remind the Council’s cabinet what the initial problem they were solving was.
The Council’s policies
On 21st June 2021 the Council’s cabinet was presented with a report titled “Transport changes to help make neighbourhoods clean, green, and safe”. The report was presented by the Council’s Director of Place.
The report summary read “This report outlines a range of initiatives that the council propose to take forward in neighbourhoods across the city to help ensure that people, rather than motor traffic, take priority on our city’s residential streets. Our intention is to make streets across the city more family friendly and suitable for children to play out on.”
A summary of the decisions been asked of the cabinet included, among other things “the implementation of measures to stop motor vehicle traffic cutting through residential streets;”
The report contains a brief history of how measures to address the above points were carried out in the past, including in parts Heaton in the 60s and 70s to address rising levels of traffic.
Section 2 of the report covers what decisions are being asked for. One decision being asked for was to “Endorse a programme of specific targeted measures to lower traffic levels in residential neighbourhoods by ensuring motor vehicle traffic travels through areas on main roads as opposed to local residential streets.”
Another decision asked for was to “Approve the network plan for safe walking and cycling routes to connect schools, to parks, to local shopping centres…”
There is a record of the decisions made by the cabinet. The decisions include “i. Approve the network plan for safe walking and cycling routes to connect schools, to parks, to local shopping centres and delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Transport to make further amendments to the plan in consultation with the Cabinet Member, local ward members and other stakeholders.” and “ii. Endorse a programme of specific targeted measures to lower traffic levels in residential neighbourhoods by ensuring motor vehicle traffic travels through areas on main roads as opposed to local residential streets.”
The original scheme
The initial scheme that was installed by the Council addressed two of the key decisions asked for in the report to cabinet. Filtering Heaton Park View was a targeted measure to lower traffic in a residential neighbourhood while at the same time creating better access to the park and shops nearby. Of course just filtering Heaton Park View alone would cause people to use parallel streets so additional measures were added to address that.
What problem that is being solved?
Knowing what the problem is you are solving before solving it is always a good move. Setting aside the fact the Council has already solved the problem once (with some problems that needed addressing) and the fact it presumably knew what the problem was before doing that the first time, we’ll look again at what the problem is.
Why were changes needed?
As mentioned in the cabinet report, many streets in Heaton were filtered a long time ago. However, the part of Heaton between Heaton Road and Heaton Park Road is noticeably lacking in any of filters, and over time has started to be used as an alternative route from the city centre to the Coast Road by some drivers.
Local residents have been asking for action to cut through traffic on Heaton Park View since at least 1975.
Since the 1970s there has been a huge rise in traffic and the number of miles been driven each year and, unsurprisingly traffic on Heaton Park Road is still an issue, with around 3000 motor vehicles per day using the street.
It’s also worth noting that Heaton Park View one of the few streets in Heaton that has had speed bumps installed in the past. Speed bumps are not usually installed on roads that don’t have problems with traffic.
How do we know the area, particularly Heaton Park View, is used as an alternative route to the Coast Road? Within weeks of the original LTN scheme being removed in early 2024 Heaton Park view was been used by numerous buses that usually use the Coast Road to bypass queues through Cradlewell while work was going on to upgrade traffic signals.
Prior to the original scheme being implemented the Council carried out traffic counts and turning surveys to see where traffic was going. You can see all the traffic counts from different dates on our data portal.
The turn counts were also taken to see where traffic went at key junctions. While not showing people’s start and destination locations these surveys pointed to a lot of people opting to use Heaton Park View as a through route.
For example, on the 18th October 2022, between 7am and 7pm, 28% of traffic driving south on Heaton Road turned right to travel west along Heaton Park View, while only 5% of traffic going north on Heaton Road turned on to Heaton Park View.
On the same day, at the other end of Heaton Park View, 81% of traffic heading west turned on to Warwick Street, with very few people turning on to Heaton Park Road. For people traveling east, 44% of traffic travelling along Warwick Street turned on the Heaton Park View, while 87% of the traffic travelling east on Heaton Park View turned left on to Heaton Road to go north towards the Coast Road.
This all points towards a flow of traffic from Warwick Street to Heaton Road via Heaton Park View and similar flows in the opposite direction.
Whether it’s diverted buses or commuter traffic, people choosing to use Heaton Park View as a through route are making a deliberate choice. Coming from the west, traffic needs to turn off either Sandyford Road or New Bridge Street and go though Shieldfield in order to get to Warwick Street. Unless all the traffic going west is only going to Shieldfield, which seems unlikely, then at some point it needs to re-join the main roads to go under or over the Central Motorway.
Has the problem been solved before?
The initial scheme that was installed by the Council in the autumn of 2022 was very effective at reducing through traffic on Heaton Park View.
The average number of motor vehicles per day on Heaton Park View, taken over 7 days, dropped considerably once the filters were put in.
The number of motor vehicles on Heaton Park Road, measured at the northern end of the street increased at the same time, as expected.
However, at the charts show by the time the last counts were taken traffic on Heaton Park View had decreased by 1826 motor vehicles per day compared to the last count prior to the filters being installed, while traffic on Heaton Park Road only increased by 1096 motor vehicles per day.
This suggests that over 730 motor vehicles per day had been removed from the area.
Problems arose
The initial scheme did however cause some problems. Unlike the area to the east of Heaton road, where every street is filtered along the main street, the filters off Heaton Park Road were not consistently placed. Heaton Park View was filtered at its junction with Heaton Park Road, as was Wandsworth Road (later becoming the permanent crossing it is now). However, Cardigan Terrace was filtered half way along and Falmouth Road was filtered at its junction with Heaton Road.
This left a road layout that was not very intuitive and led to people turning down streets, finding the way blocked and quickly learning that there was still a through route using the back lanes. This led to hundreds of people driving down back lanes each day
It’s important to note though that the reduction in traffic mentioned above is despite all the motor vehicles using the back lanes. If a scheme had been put in with no through routes, the reduction would likely have been larger, and the back lane issue wouldn’t have happened.
Solutions to problems
The Council has already come up with, and consulted on, a sensible solution to solving the problems that became apparent in the original scheme. Before the filters were removed, two options were put forward and Option 2, which got the most support during the consultation exercise, proposed a logical and easy to understand scheme that would keep and potentially build on the reduction in traffic while solving the issues in back lanes.
In a report on the removal of the initial scheme the Council stated a number of reasons for it’s actions.
Despite the long term trial and later consultation being consultations and not referendums the fact that 48% of views received were for keeping the LTN and 49% were against was cited.
Also mentioned in the report was “New Department for Transport statutory guidance stresses to Councils that low traffic neighbourhoods should continue to be regularly reviewed ensuring they keep meeting their objectives,” which was a result of the Conservative’s Plan for Drivers, just one of many policies that led to their record general election defeat. Other council’s have shown that not following the Plan for Drivers can have positive results.
The report on removal also mentioned the additional consultation held on fixes for the LTN, which showed far more people in were in support of Option 2, shown above, that Option 1 which suggested reopening Heaton Park View to through traffic. Option 2 would have address the problem in back lanes and addressed through traffic.
However the Council said that the number of responses received was insufficient – 13% of the number of letters sent out. By coincidence 13% is the share of the electorate that voted for the Council leader last time he stood in an election – a result that was deemed binding.
The latest proposals
Despite getting very low engagement on the last consultation the Council have launched a new consultation exercise for the start of the school summer holidays.
There are a lot of suggestions for changes that could be made to the area.
Our overall view is that the new scheme hasn’t taken any learning for the problems with the 18 month trial while it completely removes any of the bits that were a success.
For example, Heaton Park View will remain open to traffic, but a new pedestrian crossing is proposed near the entrance to the park adjacent to the end of Stannington Grove. If the street is busy enough to require a crossing then perhaps there’s too much traffic in the first place.
Numerous one way restrictions are proposed for Falmouth Road and Cardigan Terrace. It’s difficult to see how this will be any different to the problems created with unintuitive filter placement. As many drivers were confused by the physical barriers of the original scheme a major concern with the latest proposals is that being only signs, drivers either won’t notice them or will ignore them as the likelihood of enforcement and penalties being received for infringement I close to zero.
Even if people are aware of the one way system it’s likely that some people will view the stretch of road between main roads and back lanes as short enough that they won’t get seen/caught using it and continue to use the back lanes as an alternative route.
There are one or two suggestions that seem sensible though. The northbound one way on the Kingsly Place/ Heaton Park Road Back Lane combine with the southbound one way with the back lane between Wandsworth Road and Cardigan Terrace is a creative solution to prevent motor vehicles crossing the main cycle route, if it works. Having all the other nearby back lanes also one way is just likely to confuse drivers though, and be ignored by people making deliveries. If that does happen, it would undermine the authority of all the one way signs rendering them all pointless.
Fixing the historic filters on the south side of Warwick Street is welcome, and is something that should be done anyway. However, we feel it is unlikely that people will use the route marked as a cycle route in the ally behind Heaton Park Road. Once again, it’s not an intuitive route to get into the park. Somebody on Heaton Park Road will be able to see to gates to the park and just travel towards them. Despite the junction not allowing people to get from Heaton Park Road into the park people will continue to take their chance with the traffic or use the pavement. The changes on Newington Road, sound reasonable, but will have very little effect on traffic.
Conclusion
The initial trial scheme that was put in 2022 was a bold move by the Council and was only let down by the fact it didn’t prevent all through traffic. It was good to see the Council acknowledge there were issues with it and put forward proposals to fix it, with ‘Option 2’ being popular with most people, and matching up with the Council’s own policies.
The latest proposals look like an attempt to please everybody while pleasing nobody and not doing much to align with Council policies.
We can’t go one with endless rounds on consultation. At some point decisions have to be made and those decisions should be in support of the Council’s policies and backed up by evidence.
The Council put in a scheme to carry out it’s own policies, has put forward a way of fixing problems with that in the past but still removed it.
We would like to see to original scheme, amended with ‘Option 2’ installed – removing through traffic and making the area better for people while keeping it accessible by car. This all meets the policies that the Council has agreed.
The latest proposals don’t do any of that.
Have your say
There is one consultation event still to happen – Tuesday 6 August, 3pm until 6pm, at Ouseburn Community Centre, Newington Road
It is possible to provide feedback on the proposals online.
You can email or phone 0191 278 2767 and leaving a message or ask for a call back.
There is also a static display in the Ouseburn Community Centre reception area from until Friday 30 August. This will be available to view every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 12 noon and 3pm.