Town traffic to be assessed (From Gazette Series)

Town traffic to be assessed

FUTURE traffic movements around Cam and Dursley are to be assessed to see how best to alter the road infrastructure as the town is redeveloped.

With large development projects planned for the coming years on the former Lister and Bymacks sites, it is important that the local road network is appropriately adapted.

Town and parish councillors had been concerned that Gloucestershire County Council was not giving the issue due consideration.

As a result, members of both Dursley Town Council and Cam Parish Council have met highways officers from the county council to see what can be done to plan ahead.

The officers decided to let the two councils meet and compile their own list of recommendations for how the road network could be developed.

Dursley town clerk Ann Leaney said: "The county council came to the meeting with the idea of seeing what we wanted.

"Council has put forward a number of ideas, as has Cam Parish Council, and we must now wait and see what the county council intends to do."

One of the main issues revolves around the Dursley Relief Road, which would by-pass the town centre and give access to the Lister development.

One difficult issue is whether to make the road an estate road, servicing the houses that will be built at the site, or whether to make it a by-pass, which would stop HGVs using the town centre, but may divert other traffic away too, contrary to the regeneration aims.

A report from Cam Parish Council suggests that HGVs and similar vehicles should be directed away, but an additional link road from the new one could help get more visitors into the town.

The report also calls for "effective traffic management" near housing, with the possible inclusion of 20mph zones.

Other ideas that have been given to the county council include directing HGVs away from the centre of Cam as well as the centre of Dursley.

It has been suggested that, with adequate alterations to the road, lorries could be sent along Dursley Road and down Tait's Hill to the A38, rather than past Tilsdown and Cam Pitch.

The Cam Parish Council report even asks about the possibility of creating a new junction of the M5 at Tait's Hill.

Safe and easy cycle and pedestrian accesses to the developments are also seen as essential.

Both Cam and Dursley councils are happy to support each other in their views regarding transport issues in their own parish.