A notorious red route along a busy city dual carriageway has been a big success and should stay in place, a Wolverhampton Council report states today.
Officers from the council want to launch a publicity drive to tell residents why they should support the route along the unpopular A449 Stafford Road.
The report puts highways officers Malcolm Read and David Orton on a collision course with the ruling councillors, who have pledged to scrap it. Mr Read and Mr Orton claim the red route, which restricts parking, has reduced congestion, would cost £150,000 to remove and has had little affect on businesses.
They say when its trial period ends this summer, it should be made permanent.
But the authority’s Tory leader Councillor Neville Patten said: “We are one the ones who will make this decision, nobody else.”
It also says that despite 79 per cent of all correspondence handed to the council being negative, only four shops have closed down the Stafford Road since then, and it “would not be reasonable” to blame the red route because two of them were estate agents. The scheme was launched in March last year and has so far cost taxpayers £2.4 million.
What’s your view? Post your comments below.
9 Comments
get rid of this red route. Its a massive waste of taxpayers money for a few who use buses.
It is not.That part of Wolverhampton is a pain in the backside to drive.
Idiots who park immediatly after the exiting of a duel laned roundabout causing accidents and near misses is now eliminated.All the people using the cashpoints,shops,who park at angles into the flow of traffic making problems for the buses to progress has ceased.
How can RED LINES ON TARMAC be wasting money!!
LOL..behave!!
It was always contentious and if the council had provided parking spaces at the side of the road where space was available, this difference of opinion etc would never have arisen. The completion cost was horrendous and and while it was praiseworthy of the council to increase traffic flows it has to be remembered that vehicles MUST park somewhere, so to make parking on the road illegal and not provide alternative areas was just plain stupid. There again not many councils actually think about the consequences of their decisions before they implement them do they?
Those are some expensive red lines on the road. I’d have painted them for a lot less.
However the most wasteful aspect of this lovely red route is that you’re taking half of a carriageway and, by making it exclusive to buses, vastly reducing the amount it gets used.
I travel this route daily and have done for many years. Traffic safety and flow are far better now. Don’t just scrap it just because the ‘opposition’instigated it. Take a balanced view and ask the motorist and public transport operators for their view.
Put more signs up along the red route and paint the whole rd red and the pavements as well just to make sure everyon gets the message.We need more traffic lights as well.say on the Grapevie island,the Tuns island,Goodyear island,the Island house island,Gorsebrook Rd island and Five Ways island.
Inconsiderate morons who think they can park where they like, how they like, and give no consideration to the safety of others Hence the red route think wisely you new council leaders the red route was put there for a reason.
I drive along the route daily around 5.00pm from the Three Tuns roundabout to Qxley Moore Road and there are always vehicles illegally parked along this part of the red route causing hold ups and traffic congestion as everything has to then pull across to the right! Either scrap it or police it properly!
I really can’t understand how they wasted so much money (millions), surely 4-5 traffic wardens policing the small stretch would have been 10x more effective and only cost £100k a year. The excessive technology without any justification is stupid, Labour were rightly removed for this blatent waste of money. But the conservatives were elected partially to remove the scheme, if they don’t do it, whats the difference between the parties?