Double red lines are set to be painted along two of Brighton’s busiest roads to stop drivers parking in cycle lanes or in front of bus stops.
Brighton and Hove City Council is asking people what they think about the plans to create red routes on Lewes Road from Elm Grove to the Vogue Gyratory, and the A23 from Cheapside by Aldi to just north of Preston Park.
Unlike double yellow lines, parking for loading or for blue badge holders is only allowed on red routes in specific bays – although blue badge holders and taxis can stop for a short time just to drop off a disabled person.
And enforcement can be done via traffic cameras as well as by traffic wardens on the road itself.
The scheme is due to start next spring. People can click here to have their say or call 01273 295890 to be sent a paper copy. Information leaflets about the plans have also been sent to people living in the areas around the proposed red routes.
Councillor Trevor Muten, chair of the Transport and Sustainability committee, said: “Red routes are a practical solution that can help to prevent the anti-social parking that puts safety at risk and creates congestion.
“These changes will give us greater powers to enforce the restrictions that are already there, but we want to hear what residents and businesses along both routes have to say.
“We’ll be sure to take the views of everyone who comments on board so I’d urge as many people as possible to respond over the next eight weeks.”
Licenced Hackney Carriages and private hire vehicles are permitted to stop on red routes for short periods of time in order to pick up or drop off passengers.
Emergency service vehicles are exempt from restrictions and can stop anywhere along the route. Refuse and recycling vehicles will also be unaffected.
Home delivery drivers cannot stop on double red lines, but the council can suspend parking bays for house moving vehicles if residents request this.
The charge for receiving a parking ticket for stopping on a Red Route would be £70.,reduced to £35 if paid in 14 days. This is the same as the current charge for stopping on double yellow lines.
The council says there will be a further chance to comment on how the scheme is working during the first six months of the scheme.
PLEASE PLEASE can we have a Red Route along Western Road running from Waitrose to Palmeira Square? It is a nightmare for bus drivers weaving around illegally parked vehicles!
100% agree this needs far better enforcement, a red route is a no brainer.
One wonders how the many take-aways/coffee shops and the occasional other types of shop on this stretch of the Lewes Road are going to get their deliveries… Where would these hypothetical parking bays go?
I also notice that nothing is mentioned about the cyclists who insist on using the pavement rather than the cycle lanes as it’s not convenient for them to wait at traffic lights or be on the correct side of the road.
The same way that they get their deliveries now: vehicles park in the loading bays, unload onto trolleys to move to the shop, then the vehicles move on.
Cycles are not mentioned because they are not blocking cycle lanes or bus stops, which is the focus of the article.
😂
The bikes are using the pavement because of the illegally park cars blocking the cycle lane
Loading bays are never correctly policed and are utilised more by shoppers chancing their arm and not commercial use vehicles I.e delivery/couriers.
Perhaps a commercial vehicle registration scheme to use loading bays much like a blue badge is worth considering along with fixing cameras on these within a proposed red route. Loading bays must be provided in greater number otherwise drivers will drive round and round and up and down till they can get into one, increasing emissions and wasting professional time.
The council could even charge commercial vehicles for such a privilege and then fine non registered vehicles for using these bays on the new red routes.
Another who thinks loadings bays are just for white Van man.
ANY person in ANY vehicle can use a loading bay for the purpose of delivering or collecting goods etc.
Read the highway code.
So you want to charge a delivery company for the privilege of parking to deliver our goods and essentials, meaning delivery costs increase that will be added on and prices go up. Hmm, best rethink that one.
Hmm, some cycle lanes are dedicated, these will have a solid white line along it’s length. Those that are split are cycle lanes but allows parking at certain times, check the time plates. Sometimes cyclist have to share the space.
There’s always a swarm of Deliveroo/Just Eat drivers outside Mcdonalds in London Road. Are BHCC really going to be able to police this, or is the scheme just another attempt to milk money from motorists?
There will be loading and parking bays and we done know if the red route is full time
Your absolutely right bear road resident, it’s time to abandon all parking restrictions in case someone is inconvenienced in a vehicle, and of course cancel all speed limits due to pedestrians littering, and take away bus lanes because people on buses should be walking for their health. What we need in cities is more people being free to do as they like when they like, then we’ll all be so much happier and safer.
Frazer
Your sarcasm does little to address the points that have been made.
Bear Road makes a very valid point about shops receiving their deliveries.
I second the call for Western Road to be a Red Route. So many selfish drivers leaving their vehicles parked all day causing dangerous obstructions on what should be a clear, but busy road.
Just park on the pavement instead. As long as all 4 wheels are on the pavement you are not ticketed by the wardens. This can be seen in places like Western Road. All this will do is make it worse for pedestrians
Excellent news! I’ve lost count of the number of times I see motorists / van drivers / motorbikes parked along London Road between Aldi and Preston Circus. It’s not just buses this inconveniences but other motorists too.
However I rarely see any traffic wardens along this stretch of London Road and where are the enforcement cameras?
Hmm
Last time I went down London road most of the parked vehicles were in official bays !!!
As a local plumbing and heating engineer, I will no longer be able work for the people living on those streets. My work involves installing and repairing central heating and dealing with gas leaks, as well as taps, toilets etc. So those are things people are gonna really struggle with if they can’t have them repaired etc. Particularly if they’re elderly or disabled.
Anti social parking is a problem, but that’s what wardens are actually for, to prevent obstruction and dangerous parking. If they didn’t spend so much of their time collecting taxes from zone permit parking infringements, there wouldn’t be a problem.
There will loading and parking bays
Park around the corner and walk a short way to your location. For installations, park in the loading bay, unload, then move your vehicle around the corner to a legitimate parking bay. This isn’t rocket science.
Have you any idea how much equipment I have and how much it weighs? Obviously not 🙄
You wouldn’t make such a comment if you did. My van is a rolling tool box. I need it close by
Those poor people that live down twittens must never get any work done…. There are always ways around it, be creative. Maybe only take the tools you need out of the van?
That’s the perfect description of a tradesman’s vehicle! Love it….I wholeheartedly agree, workman need to have their tools and materials on-site and let’s face facts, their jobs are physical enough without being restricted like you say, it’s quite simply, a lack of foresight/empathy. Just enforce the current rules…Lewes road is a joke, stop the shop owners parking outside their establishments with current legislation, this redline nonsense is unnecessary.
There is rarely any parking available anywhere, let alone just around some imaginery corner. You’ve obviously never worked a proper job, have you. Leave this to people that understand the situation. The problem is the lack of wardens to deal with the problem because they’re too busy collecting taxes from the already beleaguered motorist. The net result of all this is the cost of hiring people like me will go up and up. And then you’ll complain about that too. Wardens were only ever meant to deal with obstruction and dangerous parking
The problem is with motorists blocking bus stops. Let’s not try to blame others.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Council can’t afford more wardens, they have an 11m budget deficit as it is. And the wardens that they do have, have enough to do in the city centre without needing to worry about Lewes Road and London Road.
Wardens don’t “collect taxes”, they issue PCNs in accordance with their remit. If motorists don’t want to get a PCN, there’s an easy solution – stop doing things things that cause a PCN to be issued.
The remit for wardens is a little wider than just obstruction and dangerous parking. “Safe and legal” is what they check for, regardless of whether there is an obstruction or it is dangerous. This is not common to only BHCC, it’s standard across councils.
Pretty sure the cars parked in the London Road cycle lanes are abandoned and will need to be towed. I’m up and down there several times a day and they’ve never been moved.
reported them as abandoned on council website
Red routes will not cure the problem unless the punishment is severe enough to make people think before they stop and move the so called traffic wardens to the main routes to enforce the rules. But one must bear in mind the businesses that need to have their vehicles close to where they may be working, if this this is not condidered then problems will occur for persons requiring emergency repairs
As i always say time to pedestrianise the whole city. Those that cannot live without cars can sell property to the council. Then they can rent these out solving the social housing crisis. This can be funded by the remaining council tax payers who will live in the car free utopia. Supermarkets can be set up outside the perimeter and people can cycle to get food. No buses needed. I think the main issue might be the loss of business rates from shops but who needs them ?
Rent them out? What you mean to the illegal rubber boat people?
No one working and paying tax and ni ever gets a look in.
I did say utopia, I didn’t say for who and who would finance it. But it is the logical progression of the car haters…
Chris
What a lot of nonsense. Those that can not live without their cars probably have very valid reasons for doing so, disabled for a start, then there’s those who work before public transport starts/finishes, then we have NHS workers who go from door to door, then there’s the delivery drivers, Plummer’s, electrician’s and the list could go on.
Better have a re-think.
Of course the dumb will assume that everyone who can not live without their cars owns their house.
Better re-think that one too.
Yes everyone can cycle to the supermarket can’t they, how many bags of shopping can you fit on a bicycle, how about the bulky stuff, like toilet rolls, sack of potatoes, shopping for six people and couple of pets for two weeks.
Not thought that out have you?
No need for buses, so how are those people like the disabled, elderly or other vulnerable groups who are unable to cycle going to get to do their shopping ?
I think you need to take some therapy.
Like I said it is the natural progression of the car haters…
John: Quote “Home delivery drivers cannot stop on double red lines.” When it is becoming more and more difficult to buy anything except food in local shops how are the people who live in the flats above the shops in Lewes Road or in Gladstone Terrace to get their deliveries? I’ve just walked the length of the road in question and somehow missed the myriad of available loading bays..
Frazer – Your comment makes no sense at all – if it was an attempt at sarcasm then it was a sad failure…
Isn’t it interesting how cyclist always get into an apoplectic fit whenever anyone dares to highlight the dangerous practices carried out by so many of their ilk…
I like you…
I can already see it. The over all result of these red routes will be zero deliveries and zero tradesmen working in those streets. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. And don’t give me this rubbish about parking in some imaginary bay around the corner. I’ve been working in this town for 20 years. They don’t exist. And we don’t have time to walk miles with heavy equipment. You just need wardens in those areas to move people on if they’re parked dangerously or causing an obstruction. That’s it.
So the only time deliveries or tradies take a job is if there is parking directly outside someone’s house? That seems to rule out zones M, Y, Z, most of J, and anyone living in mews or twittens for them, even us residents have to park up the road or around the corner in those zones (if we’re lucky enough to get permits).
What an absolute joke the red lines will be!! Dose know one think bout the delivery drivers or construction engineers working out of their vans?? Yes people can be very inconsiderate when parking but can’t punish the people trying to make a honest living! Brighton & Hove is bad enough to park & so over priced it’s ridiculous!! This sounds like another crazy idea like the bus lane from peacehaven to Brighton which isn’t continuous & has trippled the journey time & pollution from every car & bus travelling along that stretch of rd!! I guess that’s the green party for ya! Idiots!!
Waste of time. Having spent the last 3 weeks watching illegal stopping and parking on zig zags with police just driving past and going nothing illegal uturns mainly cabs , reversing out of one way streets etc,etc it would only be cameras that could enforce it.
Police have essentially decided responsibility for anything like that is on council enforcement. They won’t do anything with cars here, even if it’s out of council hours and the car in question is causing a major hazard. It’s all pass the buck and protect the minimal budget.
I feel sorry for bussinesses. No stopping equals no business for them. A few spaces won’t be sufficient. Loss of these businesses will mean a loss in jobs. The traffic flows, I think, okay on the lewes Road. See no urgency myself.
Brighton is trying to be the next London, Red Routes who are they trying to kid it’s just another money making exercise.. No deliveries in London road or Lewes road. I don’t think that there will be adequate loading bays for either road. As a disabled driver I find it very difficult to park in London road at any time where there are disabled bays there are normally non disabled drivers in them.
Well you’re basically making a good a case for more effective bay/space enforcement. For both disabled parking and proper use of loading bays ie penalising long term parking that blocks proper use of these spaces.
It’s a person’s right to want to drive. And why should people have to sell property? People earn their money to have these sort of things. It shouldn’t be taken away from them just like that
Blatchington road near the George Street junction would also be great with a camera monitoring the loading bays but that stretch of Lewes road 10000% yes please. It’s the business owners who do it, soon as a warden appears they jump in the car, drive around the block and park straight back where they were, causing congestion.
Agree it’ll be bad for local businesses along these roads.. no more poping into fillets ( excellent chippy) unless you park in Lewes Road Sainsbury’s ( 2 hours free parking).
Hopefully it will stop the seemingly near constant safety hazard caused by large lorries making deliveries to the Lewes Road Co-Op.
As a bus driver, you’re better off stopping in the front-most part of the stop, then all I have to do is just stop short. It’s getting the bus AROUND you first that’s the problem.
Given today’s ruling that using cctv to issue fines on red routes is illegal, I wonder if this will now be the cash cow that some may have hoped for.