The diversion of hundreds of buses a day along residential streets in the city centre is due to end by Christmas – but residents say they are still pursuing legal action to stop it earlier.
Since January, almost 700 buses a day which usually run eastbound along Western Road have been diverted via Upper North Street while a two-year project to improve the shopping street for pedestrians takes place.
The road has been closed several times for repairs to water and gas pipes, which residents say has been caused by the extra weight of the buses – although the council denies this.
Brighton and Hove City Council issued a temporary traffic regulation order (TTRO) in December, lifting the weight restriction on Montpelier Road, Montpelier Terrace, Upper North Street and Regent Hill for two years.
Residents formed the Western Road Redirection Action Group (WRRAG) to launch legal action against it. The council subsequently withdrew the first TTRO and issued a modified one.
Last week, WRRAG formally applied for permission for a judicial review after raising almost £5,000 of a £7,500 target for legal action.
This week, the council confirmed it had changed the schedule of works on Western Road so that buses could start using it in both directions again in December.
But WRRAG’s Gilliam Durham says that residents facing months of further disruption are pressing ahead.
She said: “In its latest update, Brighton and Hove City Council has said Western Road may open to 2-way traffic in December 2023 meaning the 700 or so residents along the diversion route will still have another nine months of chaos, sleep deprivation, loss of privacy, noise, light and air pollution, and safety hazards as westbound vehicles continue to mount the pavement to avoid the buses.
“In addition, in summer, not only will many keep their blinds and curtains closed, but opening their windows to let in fresh air will instead let in putrid air and noise. In addition, the council as always hedges its bets, saying the order and length of time for each section is subject to change.
Many residents have described the severe impact of this diversion on their health, wellbeing and safety. It cannot continue.”
Ms Durham’s solicitor lodged a bundle with the High Court requesting permission to proceed with the judicial review of the second TTRO.
A council spokesman said: “We acknowledge that the closure of Western Road eastbound has generated concern amongst residents of surrounding streets.
“The one way closure continues to be necessary to allow work to progress and minimise the overall impact and disruption.
“However, we previously said that we would keep the closure under review and reopen Western Road before the end of the project if we are able to.
“Following good progress in the first three months, we are pleased to say that we can now provide details of an amended programme.
“Our original plan showed work on the eastern section (Dyke Road and the Clock Tower) from May 2023.
“The contractor will instead be switching all staff to the western part of the scheme (between Montpelier Road and Regent Hill) in order to complete this section sooner.
“It is now expected that Western Road will reopen in December.
“Work at Dyke Road will then be completed following the reopening of Western Road.
“Project scheduling remains subject to change, including to allow for things such as utility works and building maintenance. For the latest information, please visit the project website.”
Will anyone in the Council Transport dept be held accountable for this colossal foul up?
I thought not!
What foul up? They are ahead of schedule. This is almost unheard of!
Amazing what the threat of legal action can do.
Clive
What foul up ?
Err Hello, water and gas leaks on roads on the diversion routes caused by whatever BHCC say, 700 buses using the roads.
More disruption and I’m guessing more repairs needed as we still have 9 months to go.
Not BHCC’s fault if utilities aren’t buried deeply enough. They can’t have had any means of knowing this.
What that disruption has revealed is that diverting buses via Seven Dials is not a practical option. It puts too much time onto journey and just shifts the problem elsewhere.
18 months always seemed excessive and it’s good that this is being sorted ahead of time. What I object to is the mentality that says ‘it’s OK for 700 buses a day to go down THAT road or THAT road, but not MY road’.
Clive
BHCC were fully aware of the weakness of the road hence WHY there was a weight restriction in the first place so it’s not fact that didn’t know.
Secondly, the road is narrow and hardly suited to large vehicles. While it may cope with some heavy vehicles, 700 a day in a tight weak road is just asking for problems, without the added congestion and pollution.
Diversions always cause some delays but going via 7 dials is just a miner inconvenience and most people just deal with it.
As for your last comment, when considering where to divert buses it has to be practical, user friendly and considerate to households and businesses, then there’s the environment to consider and the impact for the surrounding area.
The roads selected, do not tick any of the boxes IMO.
Interesting that you say, ‘What I object to is the mentality that says ‘it’s OK for 700 buses a day to go down THAT road or THAT road, but not MY road’.
Thing is, people voiced views and opinions and their concerns before the diversion started and those views and opinions have been proven right.
You can object as much as you like, that’s your right but what people object and complain about really is none of your business and is their right too.
Residents aren’t saying to go down another residential road – we are saying that none of the narrow, residential roads in this conservation area are built to carry this amount of heavy traffic (as Upper North St has shown and now Montpellier Rd also has the same leaks after it got the 700 buses). Council should have made appropriate plans to manage traffic on western road via two way traffic lights or different project staging. Council’s attempt to save money is likely costing more…
Weight restrictions get put on roads for environmental reasons as well as structural ones, so the fact of its existence doesn’t necessarily mean that BHCC should have anticipated problems with buried utilities.
As to those environmental reasons, Upper North Street is indeed in a conservation area – but so is the whole of central Brighton. It (and Montpelier Road) are not especially narrow, and are marked in yellow on Ordnance Survey maps as subsidiary through routes. And the western end of Upper North Street is actually on a regular bus route (presumably those who live in that part of the road regard this as a ‘minor inconvience’…).
That said, the idea of alternating traffic lights on Western Road may have something going for it, especially when enough of this project has been completed to make tailbacks less of a problem. Certainly it’s more viable than pretending that there are easy and workable alternative diversions, because there aren’t.
Clive 20 April 2023 at 12.38pm
Thank you for the reply that has some merit but requires further comments.
Ok with weight restrictions already in place, BHCC should have considered all the possible damage that might have been caused that was also mentioned before the diversion started. I think somebody said the road had cellars and the road was weak. So already a question mark on the suitability of using the road along with the environmental.
I accept that the two roads in question may not ordinarily be narrow, but for general traffic those roads are suitable and well used, if suitable for Buses as well is another matter.
Interesting that you use the Ordnance Survey map as reference as subsidiary through routes. Correct but normal traffic can not use Western Road so go via Montpelier Road and Upper North Road.
Actually it’s the Eastern End of Upper North Street that is the regular bus route to turn left down Regent Hill.
While there are some dwellings on that section, there’s hardly any inconvenience to locals as it has been a route for as long as I can remember and hardly a argument that has any bearing point.
Western Road has been resurfaced and altered many times with Temporary lights in place and some bus stops suspended or moved that has proven to be of value with little impact on passengers, traffic, local residents and the environment.
Some services but not all were diverted up Montpelier to the Dials and down Dyke road to serve Pizza Hut and was never a major problem for users.
You say the current diversion is more viable than pretending that there are easy and workable alternative diversions, because there aren’t.
I don’t agree, the current arrangement is a easy, lazy and ill-thought out plan.
BHCC have known about these works for a couple of years, so have had time to liase with transport operators and put together a plan.
Options there’s plenty, some can turn right down Montpelier Road and go via the seafront and up West Street, Dyke Road, Upper North Street then Regent Hill.
A much better route with more room. There’s one option already.
Some could turn left and go up Montpelier Road serve 7 Dials and come down Dyke road and either serve Churchill Sq via Regent Hill or Clock Tower.
That’s 2 options.
Both of these in place would reduce the impact on the surrounding areas and that’s just two options.
Saying there’s no alternatives when there is, is just crazy, those two options have proven to work in previous schemes.
Good for the residents standing up to the council. There seems to be no concept of customer accountability throughout Brighton council.
BUS STUFF 😡😡😡😡😡😡
Must just be a case to leave western road alone and spend thd millions where it is needed!!!!
This Western road development is another odd one from the traffic department, and we do have to wonder if anyone competent is in charge.
Inexplicably, it was due to take several years to sort out a relatively short section of road, but now they say it will be done more quickly – in the sort of time frame we might have expected in the first place.
Western Road could actually have been sorted in a matter of weeks had they done what was really needed – which is simply to resurface a potholed road, replace cracked paving slabs, and to clean chewing gum of the pavements.
What we are getting instead is a pointless new project which looks likely to slow up public transport – on this main arterial bus route which is already closed to cars – except for those cars which seem to belong to business owners who lazily park outside their shops for hours on end and who block the road without getting parking tickets.
They should also have diverted the eastbound buses via the seafront and up West Street but they chose Montpelier road and Upper North street, much to the annoyance of most people living there.
Then it turns out that Upper North Street can’t take the weight of that extra traffic, so a long section of that road is now completely closed, having collapsed.
The annoyance for any bus user like me is that anyone heading east might as well get off at Norfolk Square and walk, because the latest extra diversion means sending the buses, bizarrely, via Seven Dials.
Another disaster brought to you by the clowns at bhcc Transport Dept
Is there any reason why the buses couldn’t have been diverted down Montpelier Road, along the seafront and up West Street? We could do with some seafront buses and it would take the strain from Churchill Square which is always heaving with buses.
Down Montpelier Road? Are you serious? Buses would need both lanes to pull out and no-one gives way to buses these days. You would have buses all the way back to Western Road and a blocked junction and late buses.
The only way this would work is by closing one lane to buses with lights to allow them to pull out. Otherwise you will have buses late ALL the time and potentially no-show buses as drivers come off their break late and no-one available to drive enough to cover their legally required break.
Going up West street means you go up to North Road to turn down as you can’t turn right on North Street unless provisions were made.
The better solution was Upp. North. St. to get Western Road done quicker by having one side open at all times cuts the traffic down.
Keith
You obviously don’t have a clue, you shouldn’t make comments on a subject you have no knowledge about.
Montpelier Road is one way and currently, Artics, coaches and dust carts all use this road and never seem to have any problems, I myself have taken a large vehicle down there and always managed to emerge safely.
BHCC can obtain TRO for parking restrictions as they have elsewhere when it suits and as you suggested you could install temporary lights to allow to buses to pull out, so we’ve got a plan that would work.
Huh, buses already ran late with optimistic timings anyway, often been thrown off at Old Steine so a bus can turn early to get back on time so don’t give me that B/S about bus running times.
As for no show of buses, that happens on a regular basis anyway, plenty of 49’s following each other some running completely empty yet one 48 an hour if your lucky but with an apparent 20 minute service.
So the company don’t have sufficient staff to run the services it has so we can put that one to bed straight away, and people wonder why there’s too many cars on the road.
Perhaps part of the problem in this city is poor bus services?
If you bothered reading my post correctly, I said buses would turn left at West Street and serve Dyke road and serve CHSQ via Regent Hill.
Not sure what your last bit is about.
Narrow roads, turns that are too tight for a bus to do reasonably, plenty of road furniture, lots of parked cars on aforementioned road risking not being able to progress, and not servicing any particular bus stops, there are quite a few reasons just off the top of my head, Sue!
Benjamin
Yes Narrow road to the seafront only.
Have you ever driven a large vehicle ?
I have and can assure you there’s no tight turns. Coaches seem to cope quite well as do artic lorries and dust carts.
Quite ironic you say lots of park cars, have you been along Upper North Road ?
As I said in an earlier post, BHCC have had years to organise this. They could have put in a TRO down this road could they not ?
As for bus stops, I don’t believe there’s any bus stops on the current routes so nothing has changed here. And it’s not beyond the thinking of putting temporary bus stops on the seafront.
Montpelier road to the seafront is indeed the better option for redirected eastbound buses.
Note that the southern end of Montpelier road is narrower but it’s also one way, unlike the upper section.
The five parking bays could also have been suspended – plus there are far fewer residents to annoy.
The refuse dust carts get down there with no problem and turning onto the seafront is not a problem for buses either.
That is certainly a better route than the current option which is to divert eastbound buses via the Seven Dials one way system.
Plus it’s time we had a seafront bus service anyway.
Why is there no seafront bus service, running from Hove Lagoon to Brighton Marina, and routed along Madeira Drive?
I always wonder why is Churchill square the sole focal point for all bus routes when many of us haven’t been there for years. Chain store retail shopping is so over.
Time for an intelligent re-think of city-wide transport?