Stop using Kingsway lanes as a cash cow

IT is farcical for Philip Williams, lead commissioner for community infrastructure at Gloucestershire County Council, (Citizen, February 19) to justify the bus lanes on Kingsway having netted more than £113,000 over the last few years.

It is a laughable comment to have made, given that buses on one of the lanes, under the A38 “to help provide residents with convenient public transport services and encourage drivers to use more convenient roads” - have not run for a considerable amount of time and the so called more convenient roads suggested by Mr Williams, actually causes drivers to have to drive miles out of their way to reach the main shopping area in Quedgeley, whereas if they were able to use the road under the A38 bridge, would be a matter of several hundred metres.

So much for the County Council’s green policies where they are enforcing drivers to undertake unnecessary prolonged journeys within their immediate locality, where we live.

I am amazed that people making decisions are unaware of basics such as the fact that a bus lane, no longer used by buses is still generating significant income.

The County Council would simply not get away with placing such restrictions on established streets and estates in Gloucestershire but from the outset they have viewed Kingsway as a cash cow and in return, despite repeated requests since 2006, they have failed along with the City Council to address the most basic of requests such as lack of bins and speeding and access under the A38 to Quedgeley.

Within less than a mile radius there are three of these “bus lane” cash cows within Kingsway and it immediate vicinity.

Pray tell, where else in Gloucestershire, where people live, does such restrictions exist?

Mark R Woodbridge

Kingsway