Sheffield traffic: Council makes statement after row over Hunter's Bar roundabout cycle safety plans
Sheffield City Council has made a statement after a row over plans to make a busy roundabout safer for cyclists.
The authority has published plans to narrow Brocco Bank and Junction Road to one lane where they join Hunter’s Bar roundabout.
The restrictions are aimed at improving safety for cyclists at an accident blackspot and are part of a £1.425m scheme to make the A625 Ecclesall Road safer, improve air quality and encourage walking and cycling.
But Banner Cross Neighbourhood Group has called for the roundabout plan to be scrapped.
In a report to councillors it said it was ‘obvious’ it would create ‘huge congestion’.
Instead, it called for better lighting and all-weather surfacing to prevent accidents.
CycleSheffield highlighted the Dutch roundabout at West Bar as an example of how a design with fewer lanes had reduced collisions while not increasing congestion.
Living Streets SW Sheffield said it rejected claims the roundabout ‘cannot accommodate a shift away from prioritising motor traffic’.
In a statement, it said the current two-lane setup tempts drivers into ‘reckless overtaking’, creating a deadly blind spot that places children perilously close to speeding cars.
And it claimed a ‘minor increase in journey times’ was a necessary trade-off to improve safety.
Councillor Ben Miskell, chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said modelling indicated an increase in traffic queues if the roads were narrowed.
He added: “We are therefore exploring whether alternative measures could achieve similar collision-reduction benefits within the available budget.”
A report to the committee states the A625 Safer Roads Scheme has received £1,425,000 from government.
Some £397,890 has been spent so far, with £568,650 expected to be spent to ‘complete detailed designs’.
This will leave £856,350 to build the proposed interventions, which include a 20mph zone on Ecclesall Road with cameras, a new pedestrian crossing near Botanical Road, closing a left turn from Ecclesall Road into Psalter Lane at Banner Cross and ‘vehicle-activated or advisory speed limit signs’.
The report adds: “Should costs of the proposed intervention be greater than available funding, then either the scope will need to be reduced or additional funding secured.”