Labour now has time to engage properly over Valley Gardens and Duke’s Mound

For 18 months we have tried to encourage the Labour administration to rethink their plans for Valley Gardens phase 3.

All of us want to see the Old Steine area regenerated and sustainable travel enhanced but most have grave concerns about the negative economic and environmental impacts of the current design.

Labour caused the unnecessary delay to phase 1 and 2 that has led to its chaotic implementation so far as putting timing pressure on phase 3.

Early last year, after a flawed consultation and the dismissal of worried resident and business petitions and deputations, the plans were forced through under the pretext that a delay would jeopardise government funding.

Roll forward eight months and the council entered secret talks with the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (the LEP), which brokers the government funding, to ask for a funding extension. This completely undermined their own rationale for the rush.

At the same time, copious representations and submissions have been made that prove the council’s own business case seriously underestimated the economic disbenefits and negative impacts relating to traffic movement, congestion and air quality.

Labour knows this but to admit it would render their business case worthless.

The council has admitted at a committee meeting that altering the Duke’s Mound junction is critical to their plans to remove the Aquarium roundabout.

But it refuses to subject the proposals for Duke’s Mound to the proper scrutiny of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability (ETS) Committee and to allow meaningful consultation and full public involvement.

Instead, Labour has buried this key transport interface within the planning application for changes being planned for Black Rock hoping that it slips through unnoticed.

The council is both the applicant and planning authority – and it only takes a few moments of reading the transport submission to see how confused and contradictory it is.

As the applicant, the council states that Duke’s Mound only works if Madeira Drive is retained as per the existing two-way arrangement at the Aquarium roundabout.

Yet at the same time, the council as highways authority proposes removing the roundabout and making the west end of Madeira Drive one-way.

In a letter to me, the Labour chair of the ETS Committee says that she has been assured the council has considered everything. This single stark example alone leaves me worried that the chair may not be across the detail of her brief.

As a further example of secrecy and questionable behaviour, the council is holding an “invite only” meeting on Thursday 19 March at the Yellowave Clubhouse in Madeira Drive for “some local traders” to discuss Madeira Drive traffic management options.