The long-debated closure of Patchway’s Highwood Road to general traffic looks set to take effect from Monday 15th October after traffic orders associated with the scheme were published today by South Gloucestershire Council.
The Council decided in July to press ahead with the proposals, despite receiving a 4,137 signature petition calling for the road to be kept open to general non-commercial traffic, subject to a 20mph speed limit.
The only concession made to the petitioners was to implement the closure for a trial period of 18-months, to allow “a full evaluation of the impact of the scheme upon the adjoining highway network and local community to be fully considered”.
Opponents of the scheme say it will make it difficult for some residents to access local facilities and claim it will lead to “rat-running” along Coniston Road.
The closure will affect the section of Highwood Road between Charlton Boulevard (the entrance into the new Charlton Hayes development) and the western end of Coniston Road. Once the scheme is implemented, only buses, taxis and cyclists will be permitted to use the restricted section.
Traffic emerging from Coniston Road onto Highwood Road will only be able to turn right (towards The Mall).
The southern carriageway of the affected section of Highwood Road has already been taken out of service and is being converted into what the Council calls a ‘linear park‘.
Access from Sycamore Drive onto the northern carriageway of Highwood Road was permanently blocked off on 10th September.
Copies of the experimental traffic orders and associated documents may be viewed at Patchway Library. Objections to making the orders permanent must be lodged with the Council within six months of the experimental orders coming into operation.
South Gloucestershire Council was unable to provide a statement in time for the publication of this article. However, the closure date of Monday 15th October is confirmed in a note that was added to the Highwood Road Roadworks page of the Council’s website earlier today.
UPDATE (2nd October): South Gloucestershire Council has today provided the following statement:
“An experimental closure order will be in place on Highwood Road from October 15th for a period of up to 18 months. Highwood Road will be closed between Coniston Road (to the west) and Callicroft Road / Durban Road (to the East) except for buses, cycles and taxis. Signs are being put up in the area giving advance notice of the closure, including at either end of Highwood Road. Consultation signs will also be put up informing the general public on how to make comments/objections to this experimental closure.”
Photo 1: New road sign showing there will be no access to The Mall from the Callicroft Road / Durban Road junction.
Photo 2: Sycamore Drive junction is already closed.
I just hope that they put up enough signs to let everyone know which routes they can take instead of Highwood road once it is closed to Cars and Lorries.
A statement received from SGC today (2nd October) has been appended to the article.
I would like to know What happens if people use the road after this date will they be fined or what because you can bet there will be some that will ignore the ban completely.
With the night time closure of the M5 and all the traffic being diverted on to Hayes Way, it only needs on accident involving a large lorry on those small roundabouts for the whole area to come to a halt. Will the police force the council to reopen Highwood Road. Trouble is the council never looked at the whole picture.
Thats not really the point is it Rebecca ,a lorry could have had an accident on highwood road and then that would have been closed and if Hayes way wasnt there it would have been all at a standstill all around anyway.
Catchup article in the Bristol Post today:
Road will be closed as an ‘experiment’
Spot any similarities with our article? Shameless plagiarism!
What ever happens now or in 18 months does not really matter,as I dont think the road will ever reopen.I do not believe that SGC will have the honesty to publish the true findings after the “trial closure” period
Judging by their previous history they will just lie or manipulate the figures
to say the decision stands because as we know it really has nothing to do with joining Patchway together, and more to do with a fantasy bus route
Why don’t you all just get together and block the road on 15th October so that the buses can’t get through?
Nice idea Stewart, however several people depend on the bus routes that use Highwood Road (my wife included) to get to/from work. Mind you they could reconsider of opening Waterside Driver ‘bus gate’ as was mooted a few years ago and remove all busesrom Highwood Road as well – just wait for the outcry from Coniston Road residents when they get an extra seven buses an hour each way!
Have just bought a house being built facing on to the now closed highwood road. Can’t wait!
To much scare mungering going on I think
I bet you 12 months from now people will have adapted to the change, there won’t suddenly be a “car park” of traffic on Coniston Road, and no-one will mind.
People don’t like change. Some people object even more strongly when said change will have a (minor) adverse affect to them.
Looking forward to seeing the road closed.
Oh well, never mind, there’s always coniston road, or up rodway and off one of the others to the little roundabout along coniston. Now let me see how many rat runs can I work out in the next month!!
Right then – next stage of the closure plan……people start creating ‘rat-runs’, start complaining of parking in Rodway, Durban, Patchway & Stroud Roads and hey presto! YELLOW LINES!!!!
….mind you, some yellow lines around Durban, Rodway & Bradley Roads might not go a miss…..at least we might get our buses back!!
I live on Callicroft Road which is already an island and I will be one of the motorists who will helping to make Coniston a rat run. I have to get the M5 south for my job and the A38 is just a joke first thing in the morning and going along the new road will put an average of 13 miles on my journey each week; with the petrol prices increasing this is a joke. Highwood Road as it is works so why not just leave it alone!!
@ Karen
Are you for real?!? You live on Callicroft road and will drive round Patchway to go to the Junction of the M5 at the Mall? Why not drive down Callicroft, turn left, and join the motorway a junction earlier at just past Aztec Roundabout?
Amazing really. 13 miles each week? I reckon you could cut that by taking the option I mentioned.
I work just past the Aztec Roundabout in Almondsbury. I know traffic does build up, but from experience it’s 5-10 mins or so, the same sort of time it’ll take to drive round Patchway to get to Cribbs Causeway.
Karen? You are exactly the sort of person I’ve been on about. Resistant to change, prepared to drive 5-10 mins of Coniston Road to not change, while not seeing the wood for the trees.
Amazing.
@ Canary
“Rely” on the road? Really? Does she now? She’ll be unable to get to work, is that what you are saying?!?
No other options available I assume? So she’ll have no way to get to her place of work after the road is closed? Might be an idea to not “do a Karen mind” and just take the quickest/shortest option.
Amazing.
@ Patchway Bloke
Not sure where you are coming from – my wife depends on the buses to get to work – “blocking the road” on the 15th will not assist many people (my wife included) in getting to work as they will not be able to get through! Not everybody who lives in Patchway uses the 75! My wife uses the 73, 310 or 625 according to day of the week.
Looking at how many properties are being crammed onto this new estate and how many additional motorists this will bring to the area is worrying
What we will have in reality is many more cars,many more traffic lights,one less road,and a new road that ends at traffic lights on the A38
So in a nutshell things are not looking so good for Patchway on the traffic front.
I think that it is ironic that a road closed to unite Patchway is probably going to divide it more than if it had stayed open
I cannot wait for Highwood to close. It will reduce traffic massively.
As said above, most people do not want change.
People are acting like its the end of the world Highwood Rd being closed.
It really isn’t that bad.
At least give it a chance.
All I can say is you wait til Christmas you will soon change your mind when it takes an hour to move a couple of feet !
Agree with you entirely Liz,while its nice to welcome new residents to the area,the people who have lived her a while know that the roads just won’t cope, and already after only a few days Coniston Road seems busier at certain times
i have noticed coniston road getting busier and that is still with people using highwood even though it has been closed. totally agree with comments that is going to get worse at christmas……….really looking forward to see how they cope with the JLS light turning on event at the mall thousands of people all trying to get out of carparks at the same time i predict chaos around highwood and patchway
I wouldn’t mind and it’s all very well if you know where you’re going. If you knnow the area it’s not going to be a problem. Apart from “Road ahead Closed” there’s nothing else to help you. You just have to turn left or right depending on what way you come from, no diversion signs to help you find your way around.
Trying to get from Bradley Stoke to Cribbs Causeway used to be so easy, today I spent 10 minutes waiting in cues of traffic on Coniston Road. The first of many accidents can’t be far off considering they’re trying to take all the traffic from a busy dual carriageway and squeeze it through a housing estate with children playing, old people crossing and lorries trying to fit through tiny gaps between parked cars. I wonder what the managers of the Mall will think of the bottleneck to their christmas trade.
It’s ridiculous stopping cars using that short stretch of road, instead you have to go through a busy residential estate which must be an accident waiting to happen. Hardly any buses seem to use Highwood as it appears to be empty most of the time, who ever thought out that. No alternative signs have been put up so cars, lorries, motorbikes etc end up completely confused in the middle of a building site.