Extended hours for bus lane restrictions throughout Sheffield 'fast-tracked'

11.15.11am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 17th Oct 2005

The Council has ignored businesses and motorists in their move to extend bus lane hours

The Labour controlled Sheffield City Council have extended the hours in which cars are restricted from using bus lanes. The move will mean that cars will not be allowed in bus lanes half an hour earlier than current restrictions.

On street parking and the use of bus lanes will be prohibited from 7.30am until 9.30am and 4.00pm until 6.30pm, instead of the current hours of 8.00am to 9.30am and 4.30pm until 6.30pm respectively. The new times had been trailed on the Abbeydale Road Corridor since 2003, the Council will now roll out these new restrictions throughout Sheffield.

The move may come as a surprise to many businesses and commuters in Sheffield as the Council has carried out only minimal consultation. The only consultation, which was on the trail carried out in the Abbeydale Road corridor, showed the trail was not a success. Of the 98 businesses who responded to the consultation, 20 said they lost trade due to the restrictions and only 31% noted that the restrictions helped their journeys.

The report, which was approved by the Labour Cabinet this week, notes that changes are designed to speed up bus journey times. The trail shows journey times have been improved by one minute. However, the Liberal Democrats are criticising the changes as they do not take into account the effect on car journey times or the affect on local businesses.

Liberal Democrats will be calling the report in to scrutiny and suggesting a number of counter proposals for the Labour Cabinet to consider. They believe that there must be a much wider consultation on the proposals with commuters, including motorists, and the local businesses that will be affected.

Cllr David Baker, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, member, said: -

"The move will come as a surprise to many commuters and local businesses who have no form of consultation to speak of. Considering that the use of bus lanes is always a controversial issue, I'm surprised that the Labour Council are trying to fast-track the extension of hours"

"Any improvement to bus journeys are welcome, but there is no mention in the report of how car journey times will be affected by these changes. We might find that although bus journey ties are one minute faster, it adds ten minutes to a car journey"

"The report also ignores fears over the loss of afternoon trade for the many affected local businesses. Its clear that this move will affect a lot of people and we need a lot more thought on the issue before we go rush into these changes"

"Liberal Democrats will be calling this item into scrutiny and making a number of suggestions which aim to put on hold the rolling out of the extensions until more work is done. Should we risk creating further gridlock on our roads during peak time for the sake of making bus journey times just one minute faster? Every commuter should be able to have their say"

The report can be found here -

http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/council-meetings/cabinet/agenda-12th-october-2005/abbeydale-road---traffic-management