Bristol residents' bid to 'reclaim' village for pedestrians

Some residents in Westbury-on-Trym are calling for part of one of the village's main roads to become pedestrian-only.

They say that shutting off one side of High Street would help reclaim Westbury's centre from traffic and benefit the community.

Plans have been put forward by members of Sustainable Westbury-on-Trym (SusWot), a group set up in 2008 to discuss environmental and transport issues.

Members of the group also want the speed limit in the village reduced to 20mph, and hope the two parts of the scheme would make Westbury less attractive for cars to travel through.

The pedestrianisation idea has already gained tentative backing from Bristol City Council's urban design team and highways department.

And at a SusWot meeting, the council's transport boss, councillor Jon Rogers, also gave it his support.

Under the plans, one side of High Street between Church Road and Westbury Hill would be closed to traffic.

The area, running from the Co-op funeral parlour to just past the WH Mogford & Son hardware shop, would become a wide pavement, creating a large area for public activities, room for people to walk and space for cafe tables and stalls to be set up on market days.

The paved area would also include the War Memorial, and would have trees planted along its edge.

The other side of High Street would become two-way, with parking spaces moved elsewhere to allow traffic to flow freely.

Andy O'Brien, chairman of SusWot, said the plans would be good for businesses and shoppers in the village, and could bring the community together.

He said: "A good reason to have it closed to traffic is that it would be more environmentally friendly, but it is also about economics and community cohesion. There is lots of evidence to show that a more robustly pedestrian-friendly centre brings life to a community.

"From a SusWot point of view, we want to encourage something that gives people the chance to walk in a nice environment. We had the drawings on display in September when part of Westbury was closed before, and people loved it and said how good it was.

"The vast majority of the comments were good, and since then we have met with the council's highways department and its urban design team, and both were very happy with the idea. How we take this forward is over to the community."

Mr Rogers said similar schemes where communities had "reclaimed" their roads had worked in his Ashley ward in Montpelier, where residents had put cycle racks and planters down in parking spaces, and in Mina Road in St Werburgh's, where people had entirely redesigned their street.

He said: "The council is up for these ideas, and is interested. It is about residents wanting it. It is not something we are going to impose. Communities have to say what sort of places they want, and what sort of areas they want to bring up their children and grandchildren in."

The scheme also met with approval from Sustrans, the Bristol-based sustainable transport charity.

Alexandra Allen, Sustrans' liveable neighbourhoods director, said similar plans had been brought in around the country through the charity's DIY Streets initiative, which helps residents redesign their own streets affordably to put people at their heart and make them safer and more attractive places to live.

She said: "People who live in streets where there is very little traffic know more people and have more friends. It is another argument for reducing traffic."

Westbury-on-Trym councillor Geoffrey Gollop (Con) welcomed the idea of pedestrianising part of the village, but said he was worried about the effect of pushing traffic elsewhere.

He said: "Central Westbury needs something brutal done to it to get the village back for the people. But I have concerns about traffic flow, over where it goes and what it does.

"What we have to do is make rat-runs safer from ever-more traffic, so it flows along the main roads it should be on in the first place. One of the problems is traffic flow on Falcondale Road, as the number of traffic lights makes people come through the village. If that traffic flows properly, then we wouldn't need it to come through the village."

The ideas will be discussed further with residents and businesses in Westbury. For more information, visit www.suswot.org.uk.