We will be protesting and delivering our petition at the Guild Hall, 6.30pm 20th November
Sign the online version of our Petition: www.gopetition.com/online/16404.html
We object to:
- Stealing of gardens
- Air, light and noise pollution & Intrusion
- Impact on local businesses
- Unproven Benefits
- Ruined neighbourhoods
- Huge costs to tax payers
- Rushed, half baked planning
- Poor communication
- Uninformed decision making
Introduction:
Response2route are an independent, community campaign group who oppose B&NES council’s plans to build a new segregated road for a “Bus Rapid Transit System” (The BRT).
The route will run from an expanded Newbridge Park and Ride, adjoining the former railway line, (The Green Corridor) that runs between Brassmill lane and Windsor Bridge Road.
The council estimates that the new route will provide the benefit of saving two minutes on a trip from Newbridge to the City Centre in a diesel, bendy bus.
Once the buses have crossed the Windsor Bridge road and traveled through the Western Riverside Development, they will continue their journey on existing roads through the City Centre and along the busy London Road to reach their destination - another Park and Ride in the east of Bath
The BRT is part of the wider bid for £54 million of government funds for a new transport plan in Bath.
Response2route oppose the BRT element.
Our key objections:
1) The BRT will have an enormously negative impact on the quality of our living environment. In Newbridge and Lower Weston, the proposed route will do huge damage to the health and sustainability of our community as it cuts through the heart of the residential area - forever destroying a well established, significant green space.
The stretch will see buses passing extremely close to homes along a mile long tarmac strip - causing pollution, vibration, noise and visual intrusion. The road will form hard physical barrier across the length of our community.
Some people will be forced to sell their gardens to make way for the road.
2) Cost over runs are inevitable as the scheme has major feasibility issues and risks which the council will not be able to manage. This undoubtedly will be at the tax payer’s expense.
The number of empty Park and Ride buses passing through the area today suggests the route will not be financially sustainable, and will never pay for itself.
3) The claimed benefits will never be achieved. The route is as likely to add to congestion as to reduce it, particularly where it will cross Newbridge Road and the notoriously congested Windsor Bridge Road.
It will generate more traffic as people who would otherwise travel into Bath by train or bus will be encouraged to drive.
Out of scale, flashy bendy buses will avoid the least congested west side of Bath, only to continue along the narrow city centre streets clogging up Bath’s most crowded roads in the east.
Why else object?
- The scheme is wrong for Bath. It is imposed from above, based on a crude “one size fits all” model. It ignores local concerns and does not address the transport or environmental needs of Bath residents. It is based on a narrow vision of Bath as a shopping and tourist destination - not a balanced vision of Bath as a place to live a full life.
- The economic future of Bath does not rest on the provision of a dedicated bus route from Newbridge P&R to the City Centre, as has been suggested by proponents of the route. This is hype. Bath would not grind to a halt if this scheme was cancelled.
- The additional volumes of people the scheme will accommodate is insignificant relative to the volumes of traffic moving in and around Bath on a daily basis. This a hugely costly and disruptive way of achieving very limited potential benefits. The solution offered is not scaleable as the siting of the Newbridge P&R means there is little scope for further expansion.
- Investing in a fleet of big, diesel vehicles is questionable in a context where fuel prices are likely to stay high and will probably rise in the medium to long term.
- A 21st century vision would aim for zero on street emissions. Cities around the world have demonstrated that this is an achievable aspiration.
- The right public transport vehicle can become a positive icon for Bath. Large flashy, bendy buses do not fit and will not be loved by the people of Bath or visitors.
- The council has been drawn into the politics of funding. In pursuing central funding attached to the trendy idea of Bus Rapid transit schemes, the council is in danger of making mistakes which will cost the people of Bath dearly in the long run.
- The Council are proposing to build a private road for a private bus company using taxpayer’s money.
Sign Our Petition: www.gopetition.com/online/16404.html