Public pressure has led to plans for a new red route in Hove to go before the council’s cabinet this month.
Brighton and Hove City Council published a decision in June “to proceed with the design and implementation of a red route in Western Road”.
After a petition with more than 3,000 signatures was presented to the council, the project was on hold until the cabinet could decide the scheme’s future in a fortnight’s time.
Before the council’s cabinet meets, a public meeting has been organised by members of the public and business owners – to be held at the Cornerstone Community Centre on Tuesday (8 September).
The council’s decision noted feedback from a public consultation, the design of an “experimental traffic regulation order” and agreed to implement the plans for the red route in Western Road between Holland Road and Montpelier Road.
According to the report published with the June decision, there were 1,032 responses to the public consultation. Of these 91 per cent were residents, 3 per cent were businesses, 5 per cent were visitors and 1 per cent were others.
The council wrote to 4,700 addresses and liaised with traders, the Brunswick and Adelaide Local Action Team and the Disabled Car User Advisory Group about the plans.
Half of those who responded felt that the red route would make the area safer, 53 per cent felt that it would speed up bus journey times and 56 per cent felt that it would keep traffic moving.
The report issued with the June decision notice said: “The option of not proceeding with the experimental traffic regulation order in Western Road was considered.
“However, based on the areas where red routes have been introduced, there are significant potential benefits to relieving congestion in the Western Road area such as improved road safety and bus journey times.”
Catherine Lane, who cares for her elderly father, told the council’s cabinet on Monday 29 June that the red route would prevent blue badge holders from visiting shops.
When the full council met on Thursday 23 July, Western Road business owner Alistair Gourlay presented a petition, signed by 3,800 people, objecting to the red route.
Mr Gourlay, the managing director of Real Patisserie, said that a core group of people who objected to the red route had spent hundreds of hours speaking to those who would be most affected.
They included people with disabilities, carers, delivery drivers, tradespeople, taxi drivers, businesses and residents – and the core group said that they found that the majority did not want the red lines.
He said that the number of accidents had fallen in Western Road in the past three years and asked whether introducing the red route really would improve bus journey times.
The £3.2 million cost of delivering red routes is funded by a grant from the “Bus Service Improvement Plan”.
In April last year, the council said that £200,000 had been allocated towards the project.
The council’s cabinet usually only debates items which cost more than £1 million or affect two or more electoral wards.
Councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure, said: “In June we approved the initial design of the experimental traffic regulation order for the proposed red route in Western Road which featured a plan of the layout including loading and disabled bays.
“We received a petition in July asking the council to reconsider its position followed by further representations.
“We have listened to the concerns raised and have agreed to bring this matter back to cabinet in September for cabinet to decide whether to proceed with the scheme.
“Should cabinet agree to proceed, the experimental traffic regulation order would allow for rapid changes within the first six to 12 months in response to feedback received and monitoring of how it works in practice.”
Road resurfacing work is scheduled to start along the affected stretch of Western Road from Monday 28 September, with phased closures for about 45 days.
A public meeting about the red route is due to take place at 7pm on Tuesday (8 September) at the Cornerstone Community Centre, in Western Road, Hove.
The council’s cabinet is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 10.30am on Thursday 17 September to discuss the red route proposal. The meeting is due to be webcast.
One is so often reminded by our municipal masters that neither a consultation nor a planning decision is a referendum. Quite so.
But this episode provides a rather useful reminder of the other half of that lesson: public opinion is not therefore irrelevant.
A petition of some 3,800 people, sustained objections from residents, businesses, carers and disabled people, and a considerable amount of determined public pressure have at least persuaded the Council to think again. How refreshing.
Consultation ought to involve rather more than asking the public what it thinks before explaining why the Council intends to do precisely what it had planned in the first place. And planning judgement should not require public opinion to be obeyed by simple arithmetic – but nor should inconvenient opinion simply be waved away when it points overwhelmingly in the opposite direction.
Councillors are perfectly entitled to make difficult decisions with which some residents disagree. But they should never mistake possessing the authority to make a decision for possessing a monopoly on wisdom.
And while consultations and planning decisions may not be referendums, there is one approaching which most certainly is.
The next local election.
That will provide Brighton and Hove with a rather splendid opportunity to express its view on whether this Council has learnt to listen to the people it represents – or merely become more accomplished at imposing its will upon them.
Lady Bracknell
Can’t wait for the red route, sick of the selfish few blocking the road for the rest of us. This blue badge nonsense is a sham argument. London road and Lewes road show that it makes no difference to business.
Lol… Lewes road business is f,,,,d and London Road not far behind.. And still jammed full of traffic..
Absolutely not true about Lewes Road Dog Lover. It flows much more freely now. Dave’s right. It’s the selfish few who cause hold ups and red routes target those drivers.
Which businesses are going to be affected on western word? The kebab shops, vape shops or the restaurants and cafes? Hmm nope, don’t think anyone really drives there for that.
It will also force Sainsbury’s and Tesco to stop blocking the road as well, which is a bonus.
So maybe is 2 shops out of the entire road, the florists and the book shop.
So all this who-ha for what, because some people hate being told No, no you can’t park on a position that puts every body else out.
A few people with disabled badges (40% of which are fakes) won’t be able to just dump their cars and block the busses, cry me a river.
The council will push this though regardless of the very loud crying of a few baby boomers. Good
Florists is one I remember being pointed out last time, because they made a particular noise about it, despite there being two P&D areas less than 50m away from them. It made for a rather weak argument at the time.
In my opinion, as a local business owner of twenty seven years, Western Road Hove DOES NOT NEED THIS!!
We have seen what these red routes do for trade in other parts of the city and we do not want to be part of those statistics!!
No easy disabled access, no easy delivery drop offs, no window cleaner, no recycling and refuse collection, no collection of flowers, no pick up of wonderful cake, no drop off of elderly Aunt’s, no scaffolding lorry, no emergency plumber, displaced traffic….. the list of day to day tasks will be impossible!!!!
WHY WONT YOU LISTEN AND HEAR WHAT THE COMMUNITY ARE SAYING!!!
We don’t want this!!!!
If you don’t want this then stop the illegal parking , blocking pavements, blocking traffic . Its because you don’t respect double yellow lines and the rest of the community that we have to spend £ thousands installing red lines and loading bays
Very true…but they also need to be stricter on the side roads too, there are far too many cars that regularly park illegally on the bottom of York Road, for instance, that are mysteriously never ticketed. The red route will only compound this problem.
It’s only local shop owners parking along western road. Not shopper’s
Because a.good number of the community DO WANT THIS!!!!
I agree Louse. Our free trial of London and Lewes Road Red Routes has proven a dire failure for residents and businesses (a number of which have closed down as a result) and gives these once-great Brighton shopping areas an unpleasant authoritarian ‘don’t linger here’ feel. It has become almost impossible to pick up shopping from premises in these roads as parking bays are virtually non-existent. Why is our council helping Amazon – which pays peppercorn tax in this country – make even more obscene profits by making local shopping so difficult? They should be ashamed of themselves.
It will be simply be a disaster for the city. We should be encouraging people to shop locally and by putting in traffic schemes that will lead struggling shops in some cases to close it will just encourage more amazon lorries. It will also lead to people being forced to use more cars in the town centre as over time our shopping centres continue to be hollowed out which will push people to use out fo town shopping centres. This short sighted council should be thinking of ways to encourage and support our businesses not just new ways to tax hard working people with cars and new ways to cause even more shops to be boarded up. Also I am quite shocked that a Labour run council would be in effect almost banning disabled people from the town centre. It is just simply a negative and unkind policy.
Agree with Dave above. The blue badge argument is a misnomer – a good portion of the proposed red route is already a no waiting area where blue badges can’t be used anyway.
The truth is too many people – mainly business owners – abuse the parking restrictions along there. They park on double yellows all day, only moving round the block when traffic wardens come along, and parking back up when they are gone.
If their businesses are impacted they only have themselves to blame.
But I doubt they will be in reality – it’s a high footfall area. Same as the no traffic rules further east along Western Road, traffic is not the cause of any businesses which are failing.
No shopper’s park along western road only shop owner’s
100% Jane. How can this Labour Council claim to be pro-sustainability and pro-local businesses when they are undermining local businesses like this and making every effort to ride roughshod over valid concerns? Maybe all traders should be withholding their business rates until the council drops this wicked plan. What are they paying for anyway? Business rates are supposed to facilitate business. If the council is acting against businesses, it is no longer valid.
This proposed red route will destroy the character and ‘Village’ atmosphere between Brighton and Hove. It is full of independent traders. I have been trading there myself for 22 years and there simply is not a problem on Western Road, I use buses on Western Road all the time and have never experienced delays or problems except from roadworks. The road is wide enough for all traffic but the council want to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Resurfacing the road will go a long way to keep traffic moving more smoothly. I know so many businesses including myself who were not consulted or asked about this development at all, I found out myself from reading the Argus one day. This is not a Democratic solution and the Council needs to listen properly to the Electorate before making these knee jerk decisions that affect so many Livelihoods. The current red routes on London and Lewes roads are the 2 main arteries in and out of the city, doing the same thing on Western road will destroy a unique independent throughfare full of the life and soul of the city. Leave it alone!
Red Routes are one of the only transport things this administration has done well. Lewes Road is night and day to cycle on now.
Will be even easier to cycle once all of the pesky shops and shoppers have gone I guess!!!
Are those pesky shoppers incapable of walking a few hundred meters to their local shop?
Many Blue Badge holders are yes, Mr Burrows. You are also forgetting deliveries and maintenance. How will all these premises be serviced? The number of loading bays is laughable, particularly for pubs which need drayman’s deliveries and cannot afford for barrels to be rolling down side streets, injuring people, even supposing the dray lorries could fit into most side streets. Even the Co-Op loading bay would be removed, which is insane.
Blue badge holders can park in the dedicated disabled parking bays. I would remind blue badge holders that it’s against the rules to park your car all day long outside your shop while you’re working. The loading bays are not laughable – they are what is deemed necessary. It’s true that deliveries and others may need to plan ahead – but that’s right and proper. Why is it right that Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s deliveries arrive at the same time, park opposite each other and virtually close Western Road with busses queuing up to Palmeira Square waiting for a gap in the traffic.
The fact is that parking on double yellows is against the law already – the red route is simply a method of enforcing the existing law. So any argument against the red route is simply encouraging people to break the law. What I find interesting about the comments section on this particular topic is how many ‘ordinary’ people are commenting – rather than the usual keyboard warriors. Someone needs to start a petition in support of the red route – I would sign it in a heart beat.
Yeah you’re right Lewes road is dead now!
It certainly is! People only visit Lewes Road when they need to now and even the shoppers on foot scurry along as if they can’t wait to get their errands done and get home again. No more leisurely shopping with people ambling along. What we know from this “experiment” is that a Red Route changes the entire nature of a shopping area, stamping it with a nasty authoritarian whiff. There is no more naivity in the city. Red Routes are nasty and unwelcoming, not nice. As for cluttering up pavements, it is the desperate businesses doing that now with A-boards and street tables in a desperate attempt to get more customers in.
Research has consistently shown that the ability to park next to a shop has minimal effect on the business.
What research? Clearly not the councils as they haven’t done any credible research on Western Rd and in fact the cabinet members haven’t even bothered to take the time to attend traders meetings.. What about the research Western Rd shopkeepers are able to demonstrate from other rod closures such as during the water works which showed their turnover dropped from 10-30%.
A road closure ≠ a Red Route.
The shop owners who park their Merc’s on the double yellows are to blame. Go down there and take a survey of what is parked. Day after day it is the same cars.
Go and tell the Traffic Enforcers. They are the ones with the yellow high viz jackets on. You can’t miss them.
There are parking solutions to stop this which have been proposed which avoid a red route. The council simply don’t want to engage as they want to use Western Rd as a new fine hotspot at the expense of disabled people and residents who will lose a thriving shopping area. Shame on them and why was this never mentioned on their manifesto?
Exactly right, shopper’s don’t park along western road
Exactly right, shopper’s
As a resident i would prefer to not to have a red route.
It will be sadly very dangerous for all kinds of animals. Due to the commercial traffic displacement it is cats I fear for most. Many of the residential side streets off Western Rd are very quiet and they will not expect and will now have to deal with alot fo extra traffic.
Really glad to see the red route going ahead. Poor parking and poor driver behaviour along Western Road for many years have ruined it for everyone else. Looking forward to spending more time and money frequenting the shops because there’s less arrogant parking and better traffic flow to cycle with. As a resident I’m thoroughly supportive of the red route and fully approve.
So you don’t support local businesses now?
Only after a Red Route is installed…?
Tell us you are a council-related individual without telling us you are a council-related individual.
So where do you think the drivers will go? The experience is that they go and park in residential side streets and double park there. Wouldn’t you to avoid a £70 fine. Lansdowne Place will be one of the worst affected streets for this People in your street should be up in arms about this scheme s you clearly haven’t though it through. Anti-social parking would be easily addressed by yellow pavement markings which would allow warden to instantly ticket.
As a resident I would prefer not not have a red route – it will deflect traffic into neighbouring residential roads and affect already limited local parking especially in immediate streets of Montpellier junction. Red route is not needed.
Public meeting on Tuesday 8th Sept 7pm at Cornerstone Community Centre but will Cllr Muten and Head of Parking Servces Charles Field have the guts to face residents to explain why it should take nearly 6 weeks of main raod closure to replace a bit of tarmac and stick a couple of red lines on it. Will they provide Conways or the usual cowboys to do it? Maximum damage to businesses and buses and that is just the start of the persecution and purgatory.
It is a dangerous precedent if a red route is placed in Western Rd. Other red routes are on main A-roads. This I not an A-road. There is no need for it, only a Labour Administration who has excess funds from the parking budget trying to raise further revenue from cameras & appeasing Green voters, given that they are haemorrhaging votes. No one living or working in the area wants a red route. Even the bus company hasn’t campaigned for one. It just needs the wardens to be more active!
Liar!
“No-one living or working in the area wants a red route.”
You are a disingenuous liar Sir.
You make this untrue assertion to be populist and garner votes. You have no evidence and are seriously mistaken.
I want this red route to start tomorrow with no amnesty.
I say this as a blue badge holder with mobility issues.
Yesterday between the bus-stop and the Freemasons Arms, a distance of approximately 40 metres, there were about 6 vehicles parked on double yellow lines, not delivering or picking up. 4 of them were halfway on the pavement. It was one-way traffic for pedestrians as there was very little space between the cars and the A-boards. As I take a while to get anywhere, some people opted to walk in the road. This is exactly the sort of dangerous, selfish parking that needs to be eradicated and the red route proposal is the best tool to do it
Just needs the traffic wardens to be more prominent
No it needs eradicating and cameras and a red route are the best solution. Evidently double yellow lines have not worked. I believe it is the very people who are complaining the loudest that are the root cause of the situation. There is no longer a deterrent element to the lazy and inconsiderate motorists. It is no longer an antisocial matter but one of road safety and danger to pedestrians. Get on and get it started now.
Why not just cameras and fining?
No disabled individual with a Blue Badge wants a Red Route. Anyone who is genuinely disabled needs to be able to stop where they need to stop without being fined for it. If you have a Blue Badge, I suggest you hand it it as clearly you are not in need of it. As for cars ‘halfway on the pavement’, you are just making things up now as I live nearby and never see that. The biggest traffic obstacle in the neighbourhood is pop up roadworks with no notice, which should be prohibited for non-emergency works. The only beneficiary of the proposed Route will be the council coffers, not residents.
I think good councillor is disingenuously ignoring the fact you can’t park along this road already, so his assertion that it creates any sort of precedent is unfounded. There’s also a well-articulated need for it.
Trying to make it into a political issue is pathetic, and does his party a disservice. He doesn’t speak for people in this area; even in this comment section, which is typically anti-council have said they see the benefit of a red route.
Don’t need more wardens when a red route does the work automatically. For someone who relies on GPT to make some of his speeches in the council chamber, I would have thought he would welcome such a positive move.
The Transport Dept is run by a bunch of car hating ideologues, who are only interested in ‘sustainable transport’ and ‘modal shift’.
They dont care about the disabled.
And for God’s sake, sack Muten
It’s not a green scheme. It will displace quiet commercial traffic into residential side streets and additionally a ‘green city’ is one in which you can walk everywhere. By damaging the shopping streets all it does is force people to drive to out of town shopping areas or buy more stuff delivered on diesel vans by amazon. This scheme is clearly about money dressed up as something else.
Cause.
Shop owners parking on double yellows with disabled badges, which makes enforcement impossible.
Give us another solution that isn’t a red route.
The shopkeepers don’t want it because they’ll have nowhere to park their cars. It’s double yellow at the moment but they don’t give a toss. They see a traffic warden and drive it round the block for 5 mins before returning again. As for disabled, blue badge holders? Take a walk along this stretch of road anytime you want and you won’t see any. I’ve lived in the Brunswick area for 21 yrs and don’t know anyone who works for the council apart from two of my friends who are road sweepers before you ask.
I, myself agree with the red route.
I have always seen vehicles, including cars, parking on pavements.
This makes it very difficult for me to use pavements, especially with the types of disabilities that I have.
Sometimes I have to walk out into the middle of the road for a long time, because a lot of cars are parked on pavements.
Brighton and Hove City Council is £420m in debt. Red Routes are a licence for parking Chief Charlie Field to print money as they dispense with traffic enforcers and use cameras to fine everyone and their dog who dares to stop to use a shop (and not everyone can walk or cycle plus some items are too heavy to carry far). This Council is quite happy to throw local businesses under a bus in the process. It is all about creating a magic money tree.
The red route has killed Lewes Road. Shops sit empty and landlords are unable to let commercial premises. Now BHCC appears determined to repeat the same mistake on Western Road. The council says it will monitor the impact, but what does that mean in practice? How many businesses need to fail before councillors admit this was the wrong decision? This increasingly anti-business approach is hard to understand. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN…. to traders, to landlords PLEASE.
Lewes Road is as busy as it always has been. It’s looks different because the unlawfully parked vehicles are gone now?
Yes this is correct it is busy with buses and cars but most of the shops have suffered a huge financial hit in many cases. The council has never looked at till data as they didn’t want to know the results. Just some discredited mobile phone ping data on London Rd that looks like a piece of economic impact analysis a not bright 13 year old would have run.
Problem with that logic, is that you’re saying that business income is dropping purely down to the implementation of a Red Route, which isn’t supposed in academia. You also have to consider things like cost of living, which is a far greater driver, pardon the pun, for business downturn recently, not to mention the “Death of the Highstreet” is a continuing trend.
Red route will kill the best florist in this city…… we deserve better. The traders deserve better.
No it won’t. That particular example is really easy to counter, because there’s a parking zone less than 30m away.
This is absolutely not true. What parking zone are you talking about? Western Rd has no public carpark and it doesn’t even have any dedicated short term pay and display bays as Church Rd has.
Yes, it does. There’s also a second spot 46m away from the florist. I think you might want to have a little look at the area, next time.
Parking penalty income has jumped by £1.12m since the Lewes Road and London Road Red Routes were introduced. It’s all about the money and who cares about the traders? No wonder they are planning to paint the town red. Double red.
Except you were never allowed to park there. The only change is the instant consequence to breaking the law. The fines represent people who think they know better.
They do not, it seems.
If the Council is so concerned about money why did they let over £3 million in parking revenue disappear to a coin company yet no one was ever held responsible at the Council. Mystifying!
Pretty sure I can buy flowers without driving to the shop.
Ask your customers, what percentage of them don’t live in the city, bet it’s very few. Fewer still that can’t walk 30 meters from the nearest side Street.
Maybe its time they started using their legs or public transport. It will do them good👍.
As a person that has to travel through western road on a bus, I can assure you this road absolutely does need red routing. As for the dribble about deliveries and waste, it’s not an issue as their will be loading bays
Deano, we all know, because we are not stupid people, that the only beneficiary of the proposed Red Route will be the council coffers, not the residents or businesses, which you show such contempt for and pretend to know the needs of.
Again JamesK you are making assertions with no evidence. In my opinion, I think that the small businesses along this stretch of road will flourish and benefit from the red route. You speak about contempt yet you disparage anyone who dares to express an opinion that varies from your own ingrained view. If the Council coffers become overflowing with income from illegal parking, this should be welcomed and applauded. Indeed if your outrageous assertion in this respect becomes reality, it serves only to reinforce the justification for the red route.
This is simply untrue. The economic environment is already tough and they would not have been campaigning for months and spending thousands on legal fees if they felt they would flourish and benefit from the red route. Assuming anyone and especially Labour Party councillors that have never run a business know better than they do is insulting to their decades of experience. They have produced no credible economic impact assessment in fact on any red route. How do shops know the likely impact? Some have shops on other red routes and so know first had the impact. Others have friends on other red routes or know people that used to have businesses here. Additionally, when water works in the past have stopped cars stopping they have looked at the direct impact on their takings. Additionally, they will suffer two other financial impacts. Suppliers to the street are already saying that they will refuse to deliver. Some of these drivers have to pay their own fines and a number have said they will refuse to deliver on a red route as loading bays simply don’t work. It is not even just about the fact they don’t want to pay the fines. The current red route plans are so poorly considered it will actually be illegal from a health and safety perspective for some of these firms to deliver. This will make some of these businesses simply unviable as they cannot afford to lose suppliers. It is a cruel scheme and some of our councillors should hold their heads in shame backing it.
How about if they stopped parking on double yellow lines and encouraged their customers to comply with the law as well then there would be no need for a red route.
Based on what evidence? Where are the traders in London and Lewes Roads praising the Red Route and telling us how much profit they have made as a result? On the contrary – https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24906937.brighton-traders-slam-catastrophic-impact-red-routes/
Ironically highlighting the very issue of traders abusing double yellows.
Which, if fines generate an income, they are hypothecated towards improving road and transport – something you have been strongly in favour of in the past. So, your position is rather confused, James. Personally, I’m in favour of people more easily catching fines for something they were never supposed to do in the first place.
That’s called the consequence of ones actions.
So you are in favour of stopping thousands of disabled people from using yet another shopping street to generate fine income.
A strawman appeal to emotion, Joe. I expect everyone to obey the rules of the road, equally.
If you agree with individuals facing the consequences of their actions Benjamin, then let all Councillors and Council Officers pushing the Red Route agree to fund any financial losses to the traders from this scheme out of their own pockets. Then we will see who is willing to put their money where their mouth is in their ridiculous claims this will ‘benefit’ trade.
That’s just an appeal to hypocrisy. It’s not a logical argument.
So why not just install cameras. Why is a red route needed as well?
Good question. You can’t enforce double yellows with cameras.
I would like to see a clampdown on all the riders on electric bikes with full face coverings even during heatwaves. Two pulled up behind me when i was at a cashpoint luckily i seen them and went into the bank instead.
I live in the area and look forward to the red route, people shouldn’t be parking outside shops anyway. The illegally parked cars slow down the buses and block the pavements. Having more traffic wardens doesn’t work as the drivers drive off for 5 minutes as soon they are spotted.
If a delivery driver arrives at destination and there are no available spaces in the loading bays what do you expect the delivery driver to do? Stop illegally and load anyway or drive away and tell customer they cannot receive their delivery? Nobody can answer this question.
Obey the rules of the road, ideally.
That is not an answer Benjamin. Just a further indication you are not living on the same planet as the rest of us.
It absolutely is an answer. By obeying the rules of the road, they cannot park illegally. So they’ll have to either stop elsewhere and walk the last section or (if this is impracticable) fail to deliver.
For those who are pro; DID the council consider less draconian alternative measures if double yellow lines weren’t working?
For example;
restricting stopping only during peak periods;
retaining residents’ bays;
retaining disabled bays;
providing properly located loading bays;
allowing short-term drop-off;
using single rather than double red lines in appropriate locations;
introducing restrictions only at known congestion points.
It seems BHCC chose 24/7 no stopping along the entire section, without properly explaining why the less restrictive alternatives were rejected. Especially if it wasn’t for financial profit.
That potentially gives you a much better argument:
So that’s not going to work with heavy items. Health and safety. So the shop won’t get their delivery.
Another reminder that Tracy tends to read little more than the headline, and misses out most of the detail, then outs herself when she mentions things that are actually in the reports and proposals.
SUPPORT THE RED ROUTE!!!!
We need a petition in support of the red route. I don’t know how to do it but will sign it if someone starts it.
If some people abuse the yellow lines, ticket them, business owners or not. Double yellow lines can permit stopping to load or unload or they may not. It can bd useful when they do.
The red route will make it harder for shops to receive deliveries and to dispatch orders, undermining small traders in Western Road. In any event, the red routes were meant for commuter roads. The council is misusing its powers.
The problem is the 5 minute observation loophole that is frequently abused to evade tickets, it’s been mentioned a few times by others as well. You’re right that it will be more difficult, and I would maintain that is reasonable question to ensure there are enough loading bays.
While red routes were indeed implemented to facilitate commuter traffic (particularly buses and general commuting, of which this is certainly accurate for Western Road), their broader purpose is traffic management and congestion reduction on major arterial roads. They are not exclusively “for commuter roads” – they’re strategic routes designed to keep cities moving efficiently for all traffic, but with particular emphasis on public transport and essential services.
The research indicates that removing vehicle access is either a neutral or positive impact on retail however in tourist areas the shift of trade is dynamic and significant to cafes etc away from the established retail. It comes with increased rents and gentrification.
The Holland Rd to Montpellier will lose convenience stores to be replaced by experience led trade. So retailing will absolutely be impacted and the current retailers are right to be concerned.
Research should be open minded not a hunt to support ones bias or a predecision.
It’s come to our attention there has been a significant amount of sockpuppeting on this thread. We have identified that comments by the following posters have all been posted by the same person:
Joe M
Kate K
Kate L
Kate J
Angela F
Jane T