The council are undergoing the final stage of consultation for the clean air zone for Bath. This proposal has implications for Lansdown Crescent.
The council are proposing to introduce a class C CAZ with a traffic light intervention at Queen Square - traffic lights which sense NO2 levels at Gay street and subsequently control flows in and out of Queen Square. The unfortunate consequence of this option is that there is predicted to be displacement of traffic along Marlborough buildings and Cavendish road. Page 13 of the consultation leaflet (see link) details the displacement they expect: https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/bath-breathes-2021-overview
LCA are concerned that this will further increase rat-running along our Crescent, as much of Cavendish Road’s traffic impacts on Lansdown Crescent. We have worked with Cavendish Road, Cavendish Crescent and Saint James’s Square Associations and asked the Council to put in place measures to mitigate this displacement and hinder rat running in our area and along our Crescent.
LCA supports the CAZ. If the Class C CAZ doesn’t meet targets for environmental compliance then we shall support the Council in a switch to a Class D CAZ. We urge you to voice your concerns about the Queen Square intervention and the impact on Lansdown Crescent, by participating in the questionnaire https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZJB7CHT.
Lastly, we shall be organising a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss how we can cut rat running on our Crescent (See below).
Clean Air Zone Consultation LCA Response - Meeting at St Stephen’s Church Foyer
- 7pm to 8pm, Friday 8th November 2019
The Council’s consultation for the Clean Air Charging zone for Bath has now finished. We await the results to be published soon.
Our Chairman, Robin Kerr, with Nick Bishop and Rachael Hushon participated in several meetings with the Councillors in charge of the introduction of the scheme as well as our Ward Councillors to ensure that the implications for Lansdown Crescent area were properly considered and any negative impacts were mitigated.
Most importantly for our area are the possible displacement effects which the traffic interventions at Queen Square are predicted to create via Cavendish Road (this is on top of the current rat running we already experience).
The Council are keen to help us protect Lansdown Crescent’s residential and tranquil nature (particularly given its special mention in Bath’s World Heritage Status) and are open to our becoming a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) akin to the Royal Crescent. This would mean we would protect our Crescent and it would no longer be used as a rat run for speeding cars or a cut through for Coaches en route to the Royal Crescent; but LTNs have only one vehicle entrance.
In conjunction with our discussions, residents from St James Square, Cavendish Crescent, Sion Hill and Cavendish Road are also seeking ways to reduce the speedy and unsafe rat running on Cavendish Road whilst hoping to get low emission hopper buses introduced to serve Bath Spa Campus and local residents up to Sion Hill. We want to support them in this initiative.
We invite you to attend a meeting to discuss the issues. If however you can’t make the date detailed above please don’t hesitate to email or phone. For the purposes of collating feedback contact Rachael at (Rachael Hushon | Email) or on 07917 323442.