People living and working on the edge of proposed low-traffic neighbourhood in Brighton are calling on councillors to work with them on the pilot project.
Eight people, who live and work in Elm Grove or have children at school there, are raising concerns about the planned Hanover and Tarner Low-Traffic Neighbourhood at a council meeting next week.
They fear the scheme could lead to extra traffic using boundary roads such as Elm Grove, adding to the worrying levels of air pollution at the Lewes Road end.
And they plan to bring a deputation to Brighton and Hove City Council, asking to form a working group to “act as a critical friend and intelligent customer”.
The deputation, led by Michelle Patel, follows a public consultation when people had a chance to give feedback on the latest design for the low-traffic scheme.
The pilot project includes a mix of road closures, “pocket parks”, a new one-way system and a “bus gate” – or bus lane – in Southover Street.
The design was the third to be shared publicly after two previous options were shown at a more informal series of workshops earlier in the year.
The deputation is due to ask about the effect of the project on “boundary roads” such as Elm Grove, with residents concerned about the prospect of increased traffic.
Its concerns are spelt out in the meeting papers for the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee which is scheduled to start at 2pm on Tuesday (20 September) at Brighton Town Hall.
In the meeting papers, the deputation said that Elm Grove had a lot of traffic, speeding was a problem and so was pavement parking.
Residents want to “inset” parking bays built as well as action to ban parking on pavements.
They also want a green wall by Elm Grove Primary School to shield pupils from pollution.
At the bottom of Elm Grove, at the Lewes Road traffic lights, they said that air pollution was more than double the World Health Organisation guidelines and at the UK legal limit.
The group held a workshop with Elm Grove residents and identified residents’ priorities including safe crossings, slower traffic, more plants, trees and greening, better street furniture, resurfacing and better rubbish collection.
Ms Patel said: “Without a clear design and assessment, we cannot know the impact of the Hanover and Tarner Low-Traffic Neighbourhood pilot on so-called boundary roads like Elm Grove, but similar pilots have seen increased traffic of up to 48 per cent.
“Residents agree with local councillors that improvements to Elm Grove and other residential streets should happen first and be permanent.”
The committee meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Eight people wow what a turn out,well done Hanover, this will happen regardless of any objection because the people in charge want it to,simple. The people doing this are doing it because it benefits a small part of the community,they are not looking at the whole community.
Yes, of course BHCC will listen to residents…they do it all the time!
And then ignore those they disagree with 😏
Elm Grove is a major A road linking woodingdean and Rottingdean to the city. In its current state its a disaster. The parking bays that block traffic were possibly one of the dumbest recent changes.
Once the LTN is live you’ll have basically everyone in handover having to drive up elm Grove and down Queens Park Road. Elm Grove is a hill and you don’t need to be a genius to know cars use more fuel up hill.
So pollution is going to double. The traffic caused by this will then affect Lewes road.
I’m not sure what changes can be made to mitigate adding an entire neighbourhoods traffic over night to elm grove…
The closure of southover Street is lunacy.
It’s really good that bhcc/the Greens have taken into consideration the needs and concerns of disabled residents in the area. Oh, I forgot, the old and disabled aren’t wanted in the Green Utopia that is being created. At BHCC we love minorities – unless it’s the disabled.
People living in Brighton & Hove’s hundreds of existing high-traffic neighbourhoods fear being killed by drivers.
Actually I live more in fear of being mown down by a rogue cyclist/scooter rider on the pavement or my health being impaired by the congestion/pollution caused by the green (?) council’s inept traffic policies that force traffic off main arterial roads and onto residential streets…
Junia
And when did you or a third party carry out this survey and where’s the link to the results please.
Parking remains a problem on Elm Grove? Yes, the problem is parking on the road. The pavement section is never walked on and is available and wasted. Going up or down in a bus is slow.