Fears proposed town centre road changes will impact trade for struggling local businesses

VARIOUS issues were raised during a consultation over proposals to make temporary road changes in Warrington town centre permanent in the new year, including further pressures on local businesses struggling for trade.

During the meeting issues highlighted included traffic chaos in the Cultural Quarter, including reports of several collisions on Bold Street, problems with deliveries and concerns that there will be further pressures on small local businesses, already suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Via Microsoft Teams the council’s Transportation team gave a presentation about the proposed changes and took questions from those in attendance.
Warrington Borough Council officers advised that they recorded all the comments and these will considered and taken into account as part of the consultation process.
They explained government funding for the project had to be used in a set time period, or the funding would be lost. It had been hoped the new road to ease congestion on Bridge Foot would have been completed, but this had been delayed due to the pandemic and construction issues.
Issues raised at the meeting included:
·Request that no permanent changes are undertaken to the road network until there has been an opportunity to measure the impact of the temporary measures have on traffic flows once COVID 19 restrictions have been fully lifted.
·Concern that the proposed start time for these works in February 2021, will place further pressure on businesses at a time when easy vehicular access to the town centre is vital for their recovery after reduced trading during the pandemic. Request that work is put back to a later date
·The temporary changes introduced within the Cultural Quarter have created real challenges for deliveries to hospitality venues with large delivery vehicles being directed down narrow streets.
·Changes to one-way system in Cultural Quarter is causing chaos as some motorists are still using routes as they were prior to changes, reports of several collisions on Bold St
·It is very hard to navigate the diverted routes within the Cultural Quarter
·Concern that right turn onto Bold St from Wilson Pattern St will lead to major tailbacks
·No right turn from Winmarleigh St onto Sankey St means there is no access available to the Outset Car Park for vehicles coming from the south of town
·The changes mean that those arriving by rail and wanting to travel onwards by taxi, will have to take a longer route in many cases turning a £3.50 fare into £6.00.
·10,000 blue badge holders in Warrington, what considerations are being made to enable visits into the town centre better for disabled people?
·Removing westbound traffic from Scotland Road/ Academy St will cause further congestion on Winwick St and A49.
·Need to reinstate taxi bays on Scotland Road to feed rank at Bus Interchange
·Communication with businesses has been done electronically and through local media. There was concern that this means some businesses will not be aware of the proposed work or the associated consultation exercise and therefore will be excluded from the consultation process.
·Concern that the Council will press ahead with scheme as proposed and not make any adjustments based on the feedback received during the consultation process.
During the meeting council officers took questions and explained the processes they had followed in producing the proposed changes. There were a number of immediate actions that would be looked into around signage for delivery vehicles and addressing the access issues to the Outset on Sankey St. Impacted businesses will be contacted directly by the transportation team.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Council officers said that the consultation period will run until 24 December and they would encourage all who wish to comment on the proposals to do so.
If required there would be a report to the Traffic Committee on 26 January prior to the commencement of any work on site.
After the meeting there was an offer to hold further consultation sessions via Microsoft teams for people who were not able to make this session. Anyone who would like to participate should contact [email protected] before December 16 and he will organise another session.
Full details of the “ town centre transport improvement” consultation can be found at https://www.warrington.gov.uk/active-travel-consultation

Temporary road network changes in town centre set to be permanent