IN the next few months, Wiltshire County Council will be calling a public 'consultation' meeting at which they will present to residents of Mount Pleasant, New Road, Springfield and Silver Street and the rest of the town their proposal for a one-way system for Bradford on Avon.
The county will be making this proposal because the pollution levels from traffic in the centre of the town are now so bad that they breach legal guidelines.
The one-way proposal is fairly complex but might best be described as making Market Street one-way in an uphill direction and Silver Street one-way downhill.
The county has until 2005 to implement some measures to reduce the pollution levels in the centre of town or face penalties imposed by the government and possibly prosecution. The county council hopes that by spreading the pollution more widely and away from the narrowest streets, they will reduce the highest reading at any point to below the legal limit.
We are all in favour of reducing pollution, however the proposed solution of a one-way system is particularly unjust in that it merely shifts the problem to other parts of the town, tackling the symptoms of the problem rather than the causes, and failing to adhere to the "polluter pays" principle.
The problem of the breach of the legal limit exists because of the county's own failure to achieve traffic reduction as required under the Road Traffic Reduction Act, and as a result of its proposal the overall miles travelled within the town will actually increase due to what is in effect a lengthy diversion for traffic coming from Bath.
New Road is already dangerous to cross at peak times due to traffic volumes and vehicles regularly exceeding the speed limit. The county's proposal will send a huge volume of extra traffic along this road, by one estimate up to 10,000 vehicles a day.
The county's one-way proposal also breaches the government policy of introducing Safe Routes to School, as New Road is one of the main routes for children walking to Christ Church School.
The county is proposing mitigating measures, probably consisting of a couple of traffic islands and rumble strips, which will do nothing to compensate for the increased danger, noise and pollution.
Residents of Mount Pleasant, New Road, Springfield and Silver Street will recall the awful effect of the temporary one-way system three years ago with its huge volume of traffic and rat-running down Whitehall and Woolley Street. I would urge residents of this area to be aware of the county's proposal and make their opposition very clear when it is made at the consultation meeting.
As a solution to Bradford on Avon's traffic problems a one-way system is unfair and dumps the problem on a new set of residents rather than solving it.
For the sake of residents and children who would suffer from the one-way proposal I would urge the county council to think again and address their own failure to achieve traffic reduction.
What we need is better public transport and better measures to encourage cycling and walking rather than giving in to the road lobby.
There are better ways of meeting legal pollution levels than just spreading the problem round more thinly, and this was not what the legislation was intended to achieve.
JOHN PEARCE
Coronation Avenue
Bradford on Avon
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