Mina Road Action Group
Written by Kathe Jacob
A fledgling new campaign group has been set up in St Werburghs to achieve the transformation of a street environment – eliminating cut through traffic along Mina Road and returning the local High Street to social, neighbourhood use. After years of discussion, consultations and unsuccessful plans from the Council, the community is taking a lead on bringing about change and Mina Road Action Group has been born. Recent traffic counts demonstrate that over 700 motor vehicles pass through the street in a 2.5 hr period and its clear that the majority of these vehicles are not residents from the area. In a day, we can expect that to be around 1500 vehicles – generating noise, pollution, fast and reckless driving behaviours. All over the UK, communities are shifting their priority from polluting, dangerous vehicles to safe space for walking and cycling. These positive and healthy forms of transport improve rather than harm our community and its time Bristol got behind this campaign. Strangely, most of Bristol’s bid to the Department of Transport Active Travel Fund Tranche 3 is due to be spent on central Bristol projects in affluent areas: “The headline scheme will be improving and making permanent the pedestrian and cycle infrastructure on Upper Maudlin/Park Row/Colston Street and Queens Road.” Additional schemes will be Cotham Hill and Old Market and the total cost for these projects is £4.67 million (Decision Pathway Cabinet Report, BCC - 14th September 2021)
Following the streetscape improvements on Whiteladies Road, one has to wonder how bad things need to get where we live before we get Council support. There is apparently no money and no plan to improve St Werburghs. So what are we asking for? Firstly, the chance to triall the closure of Mina Road at the M32 end. With a quick, cheap and easy Experimental Traffic Restriction Order, we can monitor traffic over 18 months to see how it responds – and how the community benefits. During the trial, nearby roads which are impacted negatively can install additional measures – its as simple as a planter, a “no entry” sign or a bollard. We can measure if levels of cycling increase along the street and collect feedback from residents before its made permanent. Secondly, less whitewash and more honesty in our dealings with BCC Transport team – led by the Mayor’s office. After raising the hopes of local residents in 2020, they have backtracked on their own proposals for closing Mina Road and are instead offering us a “handbook”! The evidence of traffic volumes, speed and road danger is there and patently unreasonable for a tiny C road to carry main road traffic, so Bristol City Council need to follow through. We call on the people of St Werburghs and Bristol to support our traffic triall, join our Mina Road Action Group and sign our petition on change.org. https://chng.it/fqPhZHSH For more details contact Kathe at kathecakey@ outlook.com. We are planning a poster campaign across the area and attending Council meetings to raise our point in person. All welcome!
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