23 May 2023
The city centre’s controversial road closures experiment may have lost the hearts and minds of people living in the vicinty of the scheme.
Several of the local residents associations have come out against the current scheme by submitting formal objections ahead of the deadline, including Abbey Precincts Residents Association (APRA), which represents St Albans Cathedral quarter and includes both domestic and commercial residents of George Street.
To recap, High Street, George Street and part of Verulam Road were originally closed by Herts county council to allow for social distancing measures during the pandemic. Following a temporary lifting, they returned last October as part of a wider experiment into pedestrianisation.
This time round, George Street, Market Place, Spencer Street and Upper Dagnall Street were permanently closed throughout the trial, but High Street and Verulam Road were only shut from Friday evenings until early Monday mornings.
The scheme has resulted in traffic congestion caused by motorists trying to navigate the closures, with a knock-on effect in surrounding roads.
John Hedges, chairman of APRA, explained why they are objecting to the closures: “The HCC project team acknowledge the problems but have done little to address them, apart from recently reinstating the loading bay at the top of the Romeland Hill bus parking bay.
“This is odd because one of the benefits of using the experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) process rather than the normal TRO is that it allows the scheme to be tweaked rather than starting afresh.
“There are several plausible reasons for this: either they don’t have the cash or they wish to avoid reopening the ETRO six month objection window again. Either way, not very satisfactory. Since an ETRO can be made permanent at the stroke of a pen after the 12 month trial it’s also possible that following a likely positive response to a public consultation in the warm summer months, as the al fresco spirit flows, they’ll just ignore residents’ objections and go ahead anyway.”
APRA has objected to the orders as currently implemented being continued in force indefinitely on the following grounds: loss of amenity for local residents, adverse impact of displaced traffic, and a deeply flawed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan.
Should HCC introduce measures to mitigate the impact the closures have had on local residents then the objection will be withdrawn, but as it stands APRA is opposed to the current scheme.
The organisation states: “The initial implementation of the trial, in force for almost six months, has resulted in much loss of amenity to local residents of George Street, including the loss of parking, loading, taxi and Blue Badge holder spaces in an area already under intense pressure for such space.”
APRA also highlighted how illegal access to the closed streets during permitted times was causing increased danger to residents, particularly from speeding transit cars in the now one-way George Street, much illegal parking and loading just outside the access control gates and the resulting nuisance, day and night, and the almost complete absence of parking/traffic regulations enforcement which compounds the adverse impact, including some anti-social behaviour.
“Although enforcement is not a matter for HCC it is unreasonable for a scheme to be introduced that necessitates additional enforcement, that arises from a flawed scheme, and which is not readily available from other authorities.”
Although APRA accepted the trial had reduced traffic and associated problems of congestion, pollution and noise while increasing pedestrianised space in the scheme streets, there is no comparable assessment of the adverse impact of displaced traffic elsewhere.
“This results in significantly increased traffic flows in often narrow residential streets and comes with increased congestion, pollution and noise for residents and longer journey times and fuel consumption for drivers. This is not a sustainable scheme.”
As a result of the closures, narrow residential streets in the immediate vicinity of George Street are seriously impacted: particularly Welclose Street, now used by mid-sized school buses, and Lower Dagnall Street, the latter seeing traffic volumes more than doubling.
“The weekend closure of the A5183 High Street affects traffic flows across the broader St Albans road network, particularly to the north of the only other cross-town route, the already congested Folly Lane/Catherine Street corridor. Although even narrower, this largely residential route has comparable pollution levels to the High Street but has to take much of its displaced traffic, particularly in the absence of diversion signage.
“Since the Folly Lane/Catherine St route is already at or near capacity the displaced traffic takes to the adjacent smaller residential streets creating rat-runs.”
Finally, six months into the trial there is still no coherent Monitoring and Evaluation plan in place, despite considerable engagement with the HCC project team by the traffic subgroup of the Central St Albans Combined Residents and Community Association (CCRA).
Their main criticisms are that: metrics are ill-defined or inappropriate for intended use; baseline data is not available for many metrics; targets, if set, are modest and in many cases will be achieved inevitably from closure; little or nothing is in place to monitor displaced traffic and its impact; there is no method to weigh improvements in scheme streets against residents’ loss of amenity and the widespread impact of displaced traffic; and the closure of each of the three streets cannot be separately assessed.
“This strongly suggests that the robust evidence base needed for a decision to make permanent the closures is unlikely to be available,” APRA’s statement concludes.
