South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) appears to have abandoned plans to “grab” a slice of Filton’s Elm Park for a road widening scheme that is intended to mitigate the effect of increased traffic resulting from the redevelopment of Southmead Hospital.
The back down is revealed in drawings published as part of a public consultation on revised plans for the scheme that will see the number of traffic lanes on the A4174 increased from two to three on the westbound approach to Filton Roundabout.
Mark Shearman, Principal Engineer in SGC’s Transport Services department, wrote to Filton Town Council in February asking if it would be prepared to “contribute” a 317sqm strip of of land from the edge of Elm Park.
Town Councillors discussed the request at their meeting on 28th February where they decided to reject the approach, asking instead that SGC send a representative to address a future meeting.
Mr Shearman subsequently attended the April Council meeting, where he insisted the scheme could no go ahead unless the Town Council released the land, adding that SGC might be prepared to consider buying the land or doing a “land swap” deal.
The Town Council later wrote a strongly worded letter to SGC, describing the proposals as “ill-conceived, insulting and laughable”.
New drawings published on SGC’s website on 1st October show a revised scheme that no longer requires any land to be taken from Elm Park. Although the new scheme still creates an extra traffic lane, it is less than half as long as originally planned, with some extra space being created by reducing the width of the central reservation.
Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the new proposals would be implemented in the 2013/2014 financial year, says SGC.
The consultation runs until Monday 29th October 2012.
Not sure if it would make any difference to the flow of Trafic or not at the end of the day