‘Cleveland Bridge is falling down’

Well, not quite falling down, but we now have a much better idea of the repairs necessary and how much longer they will take because 100 pages of documentation has been released. 90 years on since its last very major work this Grade 2+ listed bridge needs further strengthening. The weakness is sufficiently severe to require an 18 tonne weight restriction being imposed from next month leading on to a full closure for four months over the summer.

Needless to say we’ve taken up the threats this poses with the Council to ensure that the traffic does not use Camden Road as a cross-city alternative and we have assurances on that but nothing substantive to suggest how it will be avoided.

There is a potentially a ‘big win’ for Bath during this time. Bath has no Home Bargains stores and yet those distinctive lorries are very much in evidence on the A36 and A46. Hauliers, like Home Bargains who send their vehicles through Bath to other places will have to find other routes during this period. This is a great time for them to change their driving habits for good and stop the deterioration of the listed buildings and structures in Bath. The map below shows the location of the Home Bargains distribution centre near Amesbury and their shops around Bath and beyond. There are routes round which are far better suited to their needs. Can’t the Council and/or Highways England actively encourage or force them to change their routeing?

As Bath considers the possibility of a cordon of Low traffic Neighbourhoods around the city centre this leaves only radial routes into Bath and no ring road. Can we not see a time when for the sake of a world heritage city Bath will cease to be a ‘through route to somewhere else’?

Post scriptum:

Cllr Tom Davies added an objection on 19/12/19 to the consultation regarding displacement of traffic through Walcot and Camden