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