News / Transport
Road to no longer reopen to cars
A decision by the former mayor’s office to reopen a road to motor vehicles has been scrapped by the new administration.
A short stretch of University Road which was closed during the pandemic will now remain blocked off at its junction with the Clifton Triangle.
The proposed reopening of the road was controversial, even before a Freedom of Information request revealed from where the edict had emanated.
“We have been instructed by the Mayor’s office to re-open University Road,” wrote an employee of Bristol City Council whose name was redacted in the FOI documents.
“It is not an officer decision (but you didn’t hear that from me).”
In an email reply to the officer, an unnamed member of University of Bristol staff said that “it’s a shame that this road is to be re-opened at the bottom”.
An official council document also said that proposals to reopen the road to motor vehicles to the detriment of more vulnerable road users including pedestrians “is not in line/in accordance with current local and national policy/traffic hierarchy”.
In an email sent on Tuesday to people who had commented on the plans for the reopening of the road, Bristol City Council’s interim director for economy of place, Alex Hearn, revealed that the proposed scheme had now been scrapped.
Hearn said: “For your update the City Council of Bristol (University Road, Central Ward, City of Bristol) (One Way Traffic and Contra Flow Cycling) (Revocation of Prohibition of Driving) Order 202-, which was advertised on 17th May 2023 (reference CAE/NMT/P-1262), has been abandoned.
“Thank you for your interest in this matter.”
Main photo: Molly Broderick
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