The Traffic Plan - Trust Annual Report 1973
A series of schemes has been produced by the City since 1964 when the Government encouraged local authorities to put forward plans to qualify for financial assistance for urban motor routes. Complicated road adjustments in various stages were proposed, involving considerable destruction of notable residential property. The concern of the citizens was put to the Council by the Preservation Trust and various resident's associations in different parts of the City. There was considerable correspondence in the columns of the Hampshire Chronicle, that valuable barometer of local opinion. Well over 600 people attended a public meeting in the Guildhall called by the City Council, and there were vigorous portests about certain unpopular proposals. The demand that a vote should be taken, was rejected by the chair, after consultation with the Town Clerk, on the grounds that it would not be representative of the whole Winchester community. It did not seem to occur to anyone that the Council's proposals reflected even less of the community view than those expressed at the meeting by the public, neither has the City Council since taken any steps to obtain a consensus of public opinion.
Since then the plan has undergone continuous revision. Another public meeting was held in 1966, but again no vote was taken, though perhaps through pressure of public opinion, there was some shelving of the most controversial parts of the plan.
Now in 1973, the City's traffic management scheme has been introduced. The chief result of this seems to be the dangerous speeding up of traffic in the city centre when unloading vans permit; while the narrow streets to the south of the High Steet, seem to be almost entirely devoted to this activity. Elsewhere the business of crossing roads, against a double stream of fast moving traffic, can be a hazardous and alarming experience, especially for the elderly. It might be noted that there is not much to help them as they approach the medical centres.
The traffic management scheme has been given the appearance of working, due to the phasing of the traffic lights at Southgate Street and City Road, to admit only as much traffic as the one-way system can handle. The old rush hour queues at these lights have been replaced with day long lines of waiting vehicles, which when released, rush impatiently through the one-way streets. Can the cost of delays in entering the City, (much of it laid waste in car parks,) the noise and pollution of waiting vehicles, be justified to the inhabitants, most of whom are on foot ? Add to this the cost to motorists of longer journeys round the City, the additional cost of deliveries, and the loss of trade suffered by some shops, and the benefits appear to be dubious indeed, except for the High Street as pedestrian precinct.
So far it has taken nine years to go only a little way with the plan. Much property has been bought and demolished in readiness for the next phase, but meanwhile the thinking of many authorities about traffic in towns, has undergone a radical change with the realisation at last, that you cannot alter towns fast enough to keep up with the growth of traffic. So in some other towns, central car parks are not being increased and charges are allowed to rise to a deterrent level. Planning committees no longer insist on the provision of lavish parking spaces as part of new developments. Grandiose schemes of urban motorways are abandoned, and easier public transport is seen as the only way of moving people about.
The anxiety of the City Council to be forward looking and too ready to accept the doles of central Government, seems likely to end up with an obsolete road plan. If only the City Council had been prepared to listen more attentively to public opinion the result might have been less destructive. Moreover it must not be forgotten that all these plans were drawn up without any knowledge of the M3 proposal, and this at the last moment has thrown in a new factor, and led to the two interchanges at Easton Lane and Bar End being far too close together, only one and a half miles apart or 77 seconds at 70 m.p.h. This has resulted in the City Council revising the Eastgate Street/Chesil Street section of their road plan after the motorway route had been published. The massive roundabouts and obtrusive bridges, out of scale in the City, but needed for this revised section, are all within the conservation area. Part of the cost of the new six lanes of motorway, through Magdalen Down, has been saved by building on the by-pass, another reason for the massive increase in the City link roads. This bait of road improvements, was enough to make the Council hasten to accept the plan before they had heard any views, other than those of the people putting the scheme forward.
Attention has already been drawn to the predictable result of pouring traffic from a motorway, directly into an historic town, and one can only reflect, how difficult it is to adopt a truly progressive view. Long before plans can be completed, the whole concept can be outdated. It does seem a matter of urgency however, to reconsider the whole traffic situation now, before proceeding further with the plan.
And what has happened to those pre-1970 promises to forbid heavy goods vehicles from entering the City? It does not escape our notice that the attempts to keep the size of continental juggernauts down to English standards are failing, and that even bigger ones with trailers are being planned. Some of these will have no alternative but to reach their destination via North Walls. And for what reason is Winchester made available to private cars from a distance at the expense of the local residents? Both these undesirable results will surely come about if the motorway is allowed to proceed to the construction stage, with eventual completion in shall we say, about 1980?