Rat-run blocked for at least next six months

EXPERIMENT AIMS TO CREATE ‘A SAFER, LESS POLLUTED PLACE’

BARRIERS are to be installed in a road for six months in a bid to stop rat-running.

Temporary barriers have been placed in Buckminster Road, which runs between Anstey Lane and Blackbird Road.

The city council said these will be replaced by more attractive removable planters in the coming weeks.

The council said the experiment will allow it to test and monitor a new road layout and people will be invited to comment during the first six months of the closure.

It is the latest phase of a £1 million scheme to put bus and cycle lanes along Anstey Lane in an effort to get more people shifting to sustainable forms of transport.

Work due to be complete by mid-November will see the construction of wider footpaths and cycleways between Buckminster Road and Krefeld Way.

Work to create a bus lane on the citybound section of Anstey

Lane, between Larchmont Road and Buckminster Road, is due to take place early next year.

Deputy mayor Councillor Adam Clarke, who leads on environ ment and transport, said: “We are trialling the closure in Buckminster Road to address longstanding problems with motorists using this residential road as a rat-run. “We want to create a safer, less polluted and more pleasant place for people to live.

“We need to provide healthier, greener streets to accommodate future growth of the city and its economy, all of which supports our commitments to address the climate emergency and reduce air pollution.

“We need to be radical to meet these challenges. I can assure people we will listen very carefully indeed to everyone during the experiment before deciding whether or not to make it permanent.”

The Anstey Lane scheme is being paid for by the Transforming Cities Fund, an £80 million citywide investment in sustainable transport.

The programme is set to include bus priority corridors linking the city centre to suburbs, along with the continued development of a network of cycling and walking routes throughout the city, building on the Connecting Leicester programme.

It has also seen the introduction of electric buses and a citywide electric bike hire scheme.

We are trialling the closure to address problems with motorists using this road as a rat-run

Adam Clarke