Summer 2019 – a brief respite from the incessant noise
A number of issues have been highlighted since we started campaigning:
1)
The first is very serious and related to pollution and air quality on
Temple Street. According to the MappAir100 by EarthSense information
shown on the BBC website, Temple Street has a score of 3 out of 6 for
nitrogen dioxide levels, which exceeds the annual legal limit, with
long-term health concerns for people spending long periods in these
conditions. Surrounding streets, such as Norfolk Road, Borough Street,
Spring Street, Lansdowne Place and even Western Road score 1 out of 6,
with the average for Brighton and Hove also 1 out of 6. This is alarming
stuff! We have asked the council to urgently act and even asked them
not to reopen Temple Street because of the health risk, but to no avail.
Our street is a street canyon (tall houses and narrow width, with
nowhere for the toxic fumes to go). The fact that we score 3 out of 6 is
a grave concern for us all, and we need the road closed to bring the
level down.
2) The council could have kept the road closed for up
to 18 months, but chose to reopen it, despite us alerting officers and
councillors to the pollution problem. We are therefore back to square
one with the Deliveroo bikes racing up the road, speeding cars and
taxis, as well as very many vans and lorries using the street as a cut
through. This is extremely disappointing as the roadworks are in place
along Montpelier Road for 8 months, meaning the road could have been
kept closed whilst they were carried out and the council assessed the
impact of the closure on traffic flow on neighbouring roads. They chose
to ignore our request.
3) The temporary closure proved that a
permanent one would work. We no longer had non-stop traffic racing up
the street, but residents and visitors could still park outside houses
and deliveries could still be made to homes on the street. Traffic moved
fine on surrounding streets, which was a concern highlighted by the
council. We saw the temporary closure as a trial - if it worked, it
should be implemented, and it did work, very effectively.
4) Taxi
drivers all know that Temple Street is a rat run. They regularly use it
as a fast route to the station as it is quicker than waiting at the
lights on Western Road. They have been doing this for decades and will
continue to do so unless the council acts. They are turning a blind eye
to this well-known use of the road by B&H taxis.
5) The
motorbike delivery drivers are noisy and non-stop, driving at speeds of
40+mph and even mounting the pavement to access the street when closed.
This situation is worsening as demand for takeaway deliveries increases,
particularly as there are so many takeaways on Preston Street and
Western Road using the likes of Deliveroo to deliver across the city.
The motorbike/scooter park at the bottom of the street was opened
without consultation with the residents and is clearly a key cause of
the issues.
6) Vans, lorries and HGVs all use the street, yet
they have no need to drive up it. Many of these work vehicles are not
local or delivering to the street, just using Temple Street as a
convenient cut through, sometimes even as a GPS shortcut, rather than
considering the impact that they are having on residents' quality of
life. Deliveries that are made by Tesco, etc, frequently block the road
too, causing beeping from frustrated drivers and jams behind them as the
road is not wide enough to allow traffic to pass.
7) The noise
from traffic is incessant. We are in a conservation area, with houses
built in the 1800s. We are therefore not living on a street built to
carry the traffic volumes we are seeing today. The road and pavements
are narrow. No one has double glazed windows or front gardens and the
noise really carries, particularly when a lorry or motorbike drives by.
Endless toxins and fumes are being emitted causing us all to inhale
life-changing pollutants. If we can close the street, traffic noise will
virtually end and environmental damage will drop dramatically, allowing
us to return to opening windows as when the street was closed.
8)
Crossing the road is hazardous. Families with children live in fear
that they will be hit by a speeding vehicle and elderly and disabled
residents are at risk when struggling across the road or getting in and
out of their cars. Our parked cars are so close to the speeding traffic
that getting small children in and out of cars is an accident waiting to
happen.
9) The council is not worried about safety. We have
warned them about the dangers associated with the traffic volumes and
speed on the street, but we have been told we need there to have been
three serious accidents before they will spend any money on traffic
calming. We want them to be proactive and act before this happens,
rather than react once people are seriously injured.
10) No one
knows whether the street is one or two way now. The council has failed
to clarify the situation, deciding to reopen the street without warning a
few days ago. We are now seeing vehicles travel both up and down the
street, with many near misses when they come face to face, as many
drivers are not aware that it is back to one way. The decision to make
the road one-way northbound with traffic parked on both sides is
outdated and does not work in today’s traffic. We are unfortunately
being penalised for being the last road northbound before the Western
Road lights and this needs to change.
We have a paper
petition signed by 43 households out of 54 on the electoral register and
an online petition signed by 159 people, showing the overwhelming
support for the permanent closure. If you still feel this way and have
had enough of the traffic problem on the street, please do join us in
the Temple Bar and show your continuing support. We need to prove to the
council that the closure is a move that everyone is strongly in favour
of.
Many thanks for reading this. We hope to see you all in the Temple Bar next month.
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