Huntington Parish Council - OPEN LETTER TO CHESHIRE WEST AND CHESTER COUNCIL

The residents of Huntington have expressed their concerns regarding the bus lanes that appeared on Saturday 22nd August.

Dear Cllr Shore,

On behalf of the residents of Huntington, we are writing to express our concerns regarding the bus lanes that appeared on the morning of Saturday 22nd August, and in addition, to understand how the council made the decision to install the lanes, how the public were consulted, what investigative work was undertaken, and what communication plan the council had in place. We have received numerous messages and emails from our residents who have raised their concerns and unsurprisingly were stuck in the resulting traffic jams over the weekend. Please note that in the interests of transparency, we will be making this letter and any subsequent responses public as our residents and taxpayers have a right to understand the council decisions and actions that led to the action.

Impact to Residents

As you are no doubt aware from social media updates and direct messages to the council, there was significant impact to many people trying to enter and leave the city centre via Boughton. Whilst we recognise that any changes to road layouts can cause confusion and problems in the short term, as people absorb and understand those changes, the impacts over the weekend were wholly unacceptable and were exacerbated by no prior warning and with no signage to indicate the change, which in itself posed a significant, avoidable danger to motorists.

In addition, we were made aware of three separate incidents over the weekend where residents were stopped by the police or received abuse from other motorists for driving in the bus lane which we now understand were not operational at that point.

Questions

On the face of it, this feels like a decision made in haste and with no consultation, however given the potential for impact to the city, we assume that this must have gone through a robust assessment process and it would be helpful for both the Parish Council and our residents to understand what has taken place in order for the you to make this decision:

• Can you please confirm what traffic data (number of buses to use that lane etc.) was used to base the decision on, as given what we have seen over the weekend, it would indicate that the proposed benefit to buses is not being achieved and will actually have a detrimental impact to environment as a result of the standing traffic (and buses were significantly delayed over the weekend)? We are particularly concerned about this in Huntington given the council’s intention to install traffic lights at the Gorse Way/Chester Road junction which has no traffic issues whatsoever, and yet the council has informed us that they are still intent on installing them without any consideration of current flows and the potential impact it will have on the community as a result.

• We understand that the installation of the bus lanes was as a result of a recent consultation called ‘walk, ride, thrive’, which we as a Parish Council actively promoted so that that community could have their say on future cycling and walking provision. However, out of the entire borough, 9 people responded to say that the stretch of road on the A51 in Boughton was a potential problem for cyclists and out of those 9, most suggested a shared user path or a small cycle lane, and only 2 suggested dedicating an entire lane to the cycle lane at the expense of a car lane. Can you explain why the action was taken on such a small response rate when there were so many other suggestions provided which had far greater response rates?

• Can you please provide details of the impact to local businesses in the city centre that must have been assessed as part of this process? Chester city centre already has to compete with Cheshire Oaks and Broughton Retail Park, both of which are easily accessible and with free parking, so we would like to understand how the removal of a car lane and addition of a bus lane would encourage people to the city centre and support Chester businesses.

• Can you please explain the timing of making such a change in light of the current COVID restrictions? Bus services have been significantly reduced since COVID, there are restrictions in place as to the numbers on buses, plus government guidance has been to avoid public transport where you can, so this seems an unusual time to make this change.

• Why wasn’t there a communication plan developed as part of the process? We are aware of a Press release detailing roadworks but not the operation plan for a bus/cycle lane. There was no prior notification of the change of use on a significant traffic lane into Chester. This plan should also have included signage notifying motorists ahead of the change and also at the launch. This is an obvious requirement in any change of this nature that could have had significant repercussions and we are extremely concerned as to why there was no plan in place.

Since the lanes were installed, we now understand that these are ‘experimental’ for 6 months with review after 2 months. Can you therefore please inform our residents of the following?

• What is the criteria for the experiment to be deemed successful? I.e. what needs to be achieved or demonstrated for the bus lanes to remain in place?

In summary, we, as a parish council, wholly support climate initiatives that look to encourage wider use of public transport and therefore look to reduce emissions in Huntington and the city as a whole, proven by our wide circulation and contribution of the walking and cycling consultation. However, we feel that we have been significantly let down as a result of no communication, no public engagement and more importantly, no justification for, what on the face of it, looks like it may impact our environment in the opposite way than intended due to extra standing traffic and rise in emissions. This is no way to treat the residents and taxpayers of our city.

We would appreciate your responses to the questions raised, and hope you will take this opportunity to clarify the decisions made.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr David Whitehead (Chairman)

On Behalf of Huntington Parish Council