Ring road would cut city pollution levels

I note the state of traffic chaos occurring around Marlborough Buildings and Cavendish Road set out in the article on page 5 of the Chronicle, 4th November, written by Stephen Summer.

Traffic lights recently installed in Queen Square appear to be making the situation even worse.

It’s a real pity that I have to keep repeating the historical circumstances which have got us to the position where we are poisoning our citizens.

I repeat that since 1945 ,for a baseline, a huge increase in population in Bath and its environs has occurred.

Furthermore there has been a massive increase in university, office and hotel accommodation along with other commercial enterprises like builders merchants etc, etc.

Bath is also a World Heritage Site. The country’s economy has also increased in scope and diversity.

In my lifetime lorries, for instance, have grown ever larger and become capable of carrying huge loads. The concepts of manufacture have changed to just in time delivery.

It is clear that Bath has not ever been provided with roads to meet today’s conditions. There is simply not enough road space to accommodate the traffic coming through the city including that generated in the city.

The city came near to gridlock on Saturday the 6th of November, according to the Chronicle page 3 November 11th.

Cleveland Bridge and the sewer diversion work are the only matters put forward as causes of this situation. If that is all it takes to create near gridlock, the city is clearly in an unstable position.

I repeat a view already previously expressed - I believe that it is highly probable that there will be incidents involving fatalities which will occur because our council is determined to continue this process of

overloading our roads.

Our councillors, we would hope, do get the serious matter of climate change, which has occurred precisely because we have been forcing our planet to accept unsatisfactory practices.

Nature has decided to take action because we have broken its laws.

Our councillors are determined that they know what they are doing and we citizens should shut up and let them show us that they are right. I say we cannot ultimately break the laws of nature.

It is clear from the comments made by various people in the article of the 4th of November that there are those who like me realise that this fight cannot go on indefinitely.

It is equally clear that councillors and some other people have no real grasp of what we are dealing with. So we get foolish statements made.

Like ‘However, we are committed to ensuring that the zone does not displace traffic or air pollution.’ Surely that’s what a CAZ does. It pushes the traffic and pollution to other people;

Like the council response to the problems in Cavendish Road ‘are the knock-on effects that could be addressed with a Liveable Neighbourhood Scheme.’

So Cavendish Road will be fine but of course somebody else will get the traffic because someone has got to have it. We have not got virgin acres of free land and roads to put these problems on. There have been unwise comments about the A350. It is not dualled all the way to Poole. There are some dual sections of dual but not all way.

There is a way we could make a major difference to pollution levels. This would entail a dual carriageway ring road round the city.

This would be a major construction project and would be dealt with by Government. In this connection it should be noted that a large part of the pollution is due to lorries who do not deliver or pick up from Bath but go straight through. It is clear from all the press reports that Liveable Neighbourhood Schemes will not work in Bath.

WE MUST ACT VERY SOON. IF NOT SOMEONE WILL DIE FROM POLLUTION.

David Layton

By email