COUNCILLORS have hit out at plans to install traffic lights on the main road through Dursley.

Having previously campaigned to remove traffic lights in Dursley at the western end of Parsonage Street, the town council is fighting against the proposal to replace the mini roundabout at the junction of the A4135 and Dursley Road.

Proposals for new junctions and improvements to existing junctions from the A38 into Dursley have been put forward as part of a planning application for 450 homes in Cam.

A £1.2 million remodel of major junctions through Cam has been given the support of Gloucestershire County Council, despite reservations of Cam parish and Dursley town councils.

As well as the installation of traffic lights in Dursley, it has been proposed to create a new, traffic light-controlled junction between Cam Tyres and Autos and Kerry in Cam and to remodel the mini roundabout at the top of Cam Pitch and the junction of Box Road and the A4135.

Dursley Town councillor Loraine Patrick said that traffic lights would cause traffic to back up through the town.

“You only have to look at what has happened in the past,” she told the Gazette. “Every time we have temporary traffic lights it causes no end of problems, with traffic backed up for miles, because Dursley only has one main road flowing through it.

“They say that the junction is currently at over-capacity but I don’t think I have ever seen more than two or three cars queued up there.

“We campaigned for years to have the traffic lights outside the Courtyard Clinic removed and that improved traffic immeasurably, and now they want us to go back to the same situation.”

Road improvement schemes required with the 450-home development were identified whilst Stroud District Council’s local plan was put together.
This included the roundabout as well as other major junctions through Cam.

Cam Parish Council has raised its own concerns about the planned changes and agreed last week to commission its own traffic survey.

Phil Staddon, of Bathurst Ltd, which has submitted the application, said: “I am aware of Dursley Town Council’s views on that particular junction, but our position is neutral.

“We have consulted over a number of years with Stroud District Council and the highways authority in respect of off-site works associated with the application.

“The schemes put forward in the application were identified by the highways authority and we have merely agreed to carry out those works."