Shrewbury residents met with council officials to discuss road changes by the train station. There not happy about it at all.
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00:00 So Ian we just stood here at the public meeting tonight at the gateway for the proposed road changes behind us.
00:06 They're proposing to totally change the direction of the road aren't they?
00:10 Yes, the council are planning to change Chester Street into two-way, which will accommodate all the traffic from Cotent Hill
00:20 and go through Chester Street to a T-junction where the traffic will need to turn left and immediately right to go into the town centre
00:31 and right at the T-junction to go into Smithfield Road.
00:35 This is all to accommodate a cycle path down Castle Street and Castle Foregate
00:42 and at the same time turning Castle Foregate into one-lane traffic and not two
00:48 to replace the cycle lane will be to replace the bus lane
00:54 which we fear will just bring the town to a gridlock.
00:59 We're here tonight at the gateway to discuss with the council our fears and findings and listen to what they've got to say.
01:09 We want to hear your concerns, let you hear from the experts who have got technical knowledge and can either explain what and why things are being done
01:21 or take away some of the points that you might have.
01:25 So that's why we're here tonight. You can tell by my accent I'm not from Shrewsbury, I'm from Warwick, Jayton
01:32 and I've done half the time, I've been at several talks, I've only stayed about half past
01:37 but Claire here will take lots of notes and we've got John to be presented to the labelling up team
01:49 in terms of delivering some of the early work that we'll probably touch on later which is encompassed more broadly in the movement strategy for the big town plan.
01:57 In Kilnartonners, in any scheme of this kind, we see this as a highway scheme but it's a lot more than that, there's a lot more than highways, bits and pieces being delivered here.
02:06 What we did is we signed up to quite a rigorous and onerous set of outputs and we broadened out from highway scheme, just traffic movements which is traditionally what you look at with a road improvement scheme
02:18 and we're looking more holistically here in terms of air quality, in terms of journey time reliability, safety
02:24 but I think most importantly one of the planks that we're trying to push at the moment and it's probably in your minds as it's in the national mindset as well
02:31 is using active travel as an option for people that have got an ability to do so, to flip journeys from the car into active travel which is all encompassing, it can be scooting, it can be walking, it can be cycling.
02:42 It's not anti-car per se but what it's looking to do is offer people a reasonable chance to use another option where the car is currently at a default setting.
02:50 So in line with all of that, what we would want to do is develop a scheme and say that looks great, I'm doing it.
02:55 I think the first thing we have to do is obviously talk to people that are going to be using the scheme, interacting with it as residents such as yourself
03:01 and also those more broadly in the town that use this as a conduit.
03:04 We're still in the top half of priorities for people, cycling improvements, cultural heritage, metallising, sustainability is a catch all but that could be seen to be people advocating for the active travel agenda
03:16 that's walking and cycling, sustainable in the broadest sense. Sustainable in terms of the area as a residential area, an ambition to improve and uplift the feel of the area for those people that are here or maybe should re-locate here.
03:27 And then we go down, biodiversity, obviously a lot of stuff about planting and greening and then we've got more seating so maybe a place to stop and rest on your journey into town for a bicycle.
03:38 So you can see a broad sort of church of opinions here, it wasn't focused on drivers saying I don't want it, pedestrians saying I do, it was a real mix.
03:46 And you can see for us as a council, that's the challenge. We've got a number of competing agendas and we've got to make some difficult decisions about where we prioritise in terms of design and programme.
03:56 [Audience member] ...more on their diet?
03:59 [David] No, no, no. That sounds like rubbish.
04:03 [Audience member] Well we have to take a professional opinion on the assessment of the trees and the assessment is that the trees are not in a healthy state.
04:09 [David] The trouble with these things is that...
04:12 [Audience member] Sorry?
04:13 [David] The trouble with these things...
04:14 [Audience member] Sorry, can we just have one at a time?
04:16 [David] You take the opinions you want to take...
04:19 [Audience member] Sorry?
04:20 [David] I think you take the opinions you want to take.
04:23 [Audience member] We take the opinions that are for quite professional services within the council and outside.
04:29 So at this point in time there is actually a replanting regime as well so it's not taken loss.
04:35 [David] Yeah but we know from places like Portsmouth and Sheffield that that's just rubbish.
04:40 [Audience member] But these aren't trees of a noticeable veteran status. These are trees which effectively some of them are self set following the original planting regime.
04:47 As Laura's explained they're not in a very good condition. They're not in a healthy state. They're unlikely to have much in the future.
04:53 [David] Well from what I've seen of them they look fine. I just don't believe it.
04:57 Because you know they grow every year, they have leaves every year, they drop their stuff every year.
05:05 So I just don't believe what you're saying.
05:08 [Audience member] Well in which case we can reduce the reports on which we base our views.
05:11 [David] Fine.
05:12 Extra elements related to this scheme. But it's worth saying underwriting this. This isn't a localised modelling exercise.
05:18 The data we've got is from what we call a strategic model. Effectively that's the A49 and the A5 inbound.
05:24 [Audience member] So you didn't have a counter on the road like you did at Smithfield Road or Fringe?
05:29 [David] Yeah. These are the locations. So we've used traffic cameras for observing real life movements which is captured those.
05:36 And then we've got AMPR which is number plate recognition. So we can actually log every car journey through each of these points.
05:43 These have been assessed as the key decision points where people go left, right, straight, on stop or whatever.
05:48 So all of these are really really detailed in terms of the information we've got.
05:52 And it's worth saying that that wasn't done in isolation. We can overlay that on a bigger map that we have.
05:57 And even a refresh of the town itself. So we're extremely confident that we've got the right information.
06:02 And that the baseline we've used is actually what's happening out there today.
06:05 [Audience member] So you'll be able to give us a figure on how many extra vehicles we use in Chester Street then?
06:10 [David] We've got that tonight. Yeah. That's fine.
06:14 [Audience member] So you can share that with us?
06:15 [David] Yeah. Yeah. Well should we move straight on to that because Chester Street has been raised a couple of times.
06:19 And I think, Laura, do you just want to run through that one there on the left?
06:23 [Laura] Yes. So this is the changes in traffic flow as they will be once the schemes have been corrected.
06:33 And the changes as they are now is the changes as they will be.
06:37 It's worth noting that it is Chester Street the one that is looking like it's going to get more vehicles.
06:50 It looks like at the point of opening, so if the scheme was completed and it was opening tomorrow, yes.
06:57 So having that two-way, you will get more vehicles. You will get around between 100 and 200 more vehicles an hour.
07:05 However, we could potentially disregard this little section here.
07:10 This is all the traffic. At this point, we only have people at the moment coming from Smithfield Road and turning right.
07:21 So out of the station and turning right northbound.
07:24 There will be a progressive reduction from now till as time goes on.
07:33 [Chair] I think you're saying until the North West relief road is built.
07:36 [Chair] Can I just put that in layman's terms?
07:38 [Laura] She's taken my confidence that that's going to be the answer to the problem.
07:41 So is it definitely going to go ahead?
07:44 [Chair] It's absolutely true.
07:58 So if I address that immediately, what we're looking at here is this scheme in isolation.
08:02 And the takeaway from this, by the one hot spot that Laura has described, clearly as traffic doubles up in direction,
08:08 you're going to see an increase in traffic as represented by the red line.
08:11 On the footprint of the scheme as a whole, it's no detriment at the point of opening the area, as shown there.
08:17 Because there are distinct reductions in traffic.
08:20 [Laura] You said at the beginning, in your opening presentation there, that this is not an anti-traffic scheme.
08:28 So I think what we're looking for as residents along here is that actually you'd like to see a reduction in traffic.
08:36 But what you're now saying is that might or might not come about if the release scheme goes ahead.
08:42 But literally, not for another 15 years if it doesn't.
08:45 [Chair] So I think let's put it in context in terms of anti-traffic.
08:48 It's quite emotive language that gets used when you put in active travel.
08:52 It's car or bike.
08:54 I think this, with the limited street space that we've got here, is an excellent compromise between increasing cycling activity,
09:01 particularly adjacent to the station here, and not impacting unduly on motorists that have a genuine reason to get through.
09:08 I think as Laura suggested, the Council's ambitions through the Big Town Plan movement strategy
09:13 show that there is an appetite emerging through that consultation exercise for something which is more holistic for the town.
09:20 But if we were to drop a really punitive scheme in one location, we're going to see a log jam.
09:25 That's not responsible highway management.
09:27 What we've got to do is gently, gently start coercing people into potentially considering active travel
09:33 without at this stage bringing the town to a standstill.
09:36 So this is a risk.
09:37 [Chatter]
09:40 [Chair] What we've established in this, what we've demonstrated is that your environmental issues will be no worse than what they are.
09:50 [Chatter]
09:55 [Chair] It's clear to me that you don't want to know.
09:58 [Chatter]
10:19 [Chair] I mean the 90 households in this 100 metres are probably paying more council tax than any other square 100 metres in the county.
10:26 [Chatter]
10:28 [Chair] This section here, you may be in that location there, into Chester Street,
10:33 just because that's a red spot at the moment, but Chester Street can become a red spot with an extra 200 cars an hour.
10:40 [Chatter]