The SouthGlos Post

Work is about to start on a scheme to tackle traffic congestion and improve road safety at the Kingsfield roundabout in Longwell Green.

The roundabout, which provides access to the Aspects Leisure Park and to Asda, has seen a considerable increase in traffic levels and queuing during the rush hour due to the significant expansion of local retail facilities over recent years.

The scheme will include widening the ring road to three lanes on the approaches to the roundabout and a widening of the Marsham Way approach to provide an extra lane for traffic turning onto the ring road. Traffic lights will also be installedto control traffic on all the main approaches to the junction, with the exception of Leisure Road which will remain under give way operation.

Similar improvements made last year to the Deanery Road roundabout on the ring road resulted in a reduction in commuter journey times and a positive impact on road safety – reducing accident numbers by more than 30 per cent.

It is hoped that there will be a similar improvement at the Kingsfield roundabout, which is one of the district’s main accident concentration sites.

The work is starting on Monday 23rd August and will last for 15 weeks. Outside of peak hours, the ring road will be reduced to one lane on each of the approaches to the roundabout and a temporary speed limit of 30mph will be in force for the duration of the works.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

A spring clean of the A4174 Avon Ring Road has produced a mammoth 550 bags of rubbish.

The clean up, conducted by South Gloucestershire Council over a three week period, involved considerable resources, including lane closures. The rubbish is thought to have been thrown out of vehicles or escaped from unsecured loads.

The spring clean was accompanied by a joint operation between council officers and the police targeting both individual motorists who throw rubbish from their cars and hauliers who allow waste to escape from their vehicles.

Littering motorists are liable to pay a £75 fixed penalty notice whilst hauliers can be fined considerably more – last year a local company received a fine and costs totalling £3,520 after being found guilty of allowing waste to escape from one of its vehicles onto the ring road.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

The A4174 Ring Road will get a spring clean during March when South Gloucestershire Council conducts a clean up operation to remove litter from the verges and central reservation.

Starting on 8 March for three weeks, there will be off-peak lane closures between 9.30am and 3.30pm to ensure the safety of the workers clearing the accumulated litter. The rubbish has either been thrown out of vehicles or has escaped from unsecured loads.

As well as cleaning the rubbish up, the council will also be taking enforcement action against drivers who create the litter problem. A joint operation between council officers and the police will run parallel with the clean up operation and will target both individual motorists who throw rubbish from their cars and hauliers who allow waste to escape from their vehicles. This enforcement operation follows on from a similar successful initiative last year.

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Source: South Gloucestershire Council

Work to remove a controversial extension of the ‘2+ lane’ on the A4174 ring road has been completed this week after a campaign by local councillors.

In 2004, the A4174 High Occupancy Vehicle Lane (HOV) – otherwise known as the 2+ lane – was extended from the Church Lane overbridge to the Wick Wick roundabout on an experimental basis.

At the time the extension was introduced, the consultation received over 300 responses with nearly 80 per cent opposing it.

In line with these views, the shortening of the 2+ lane was announced in April 2009 after a council review of the efficiency and effectiveness of the HOV lanes.

The review was ordered last year by Cllr Brian Allinson, South Gloucestershire Council’s Conservative transport chief since 2007, after traffic monitoring figures showed that usage of the 2+ lane had flat-lined over recent years, despite efforts to promote car sharing. This suggested that of those drivers that are left, many of them simply cannot car share for various reasons.

Other changes announced by the Council in April included plans to:

• change the HOV lane to a Priority Vehicle Lane, allowing HGVs and driver-only taxis to use it; and
• reduce the HOV lane’s hours of operation from 07.30 to 09.30 (currently it starts at 07.00)

Emersons Green Cllrs. Colin Hunt, James Hunt and Ian Morris, who have campaigned on the issue, have welcomed the extensions’ removal. They said:

“We are pleased that the experimental extension of the 2+ lane has been removed as this is something that many of our residents have been asking for.

There was much consultation at the time of the introduction of the extension where a huge majority of responses clearly opposed the extension.

Yet these legitimate views were dismissed at the time and the extension has remained ever since.

We are grateful to Cllr Allinson for acting on residents concerns about the extension.”

They added:

“Ever since the 2+ lane was first introduced, huge numbers of residents in Downend, Emersons Green and beyond feel they are being unfairly discriminated against because they don’t have the option of using it.

The rest of the Council’s proposed changes should go some way to addressing these feelings and wider plans to provide a park and ride on the proposed Emersons Green East development to tackle congestion are to be welcomed.”

Source: Conservatives on South Gloucestershire Council