People living and working in Bedminster and Southville are being invited to a public meeting next week to discuss whether anything more needs to be done to lessen the blow from the closure of the main road through Bedminster for two and a half years.
The main A38 Malago Road was closed northbound back in January, and the knock-on effect of diversions and other road closures have been felt from Windmill Hill and Victoria Park to Coronation Road and Southville. Now, a public meeting is being called to talk through those effects, and think about if other measures are needed to mitigate the impact of the closure.
Vehicle traffic on the northbound A38 Malago Road is forbidden to allow a major project to realign the road, prepare the ground for the Bedminster Green regeneration developments and install the infrastructure for a District Heat Network to serve those new blocks of flats and student accommodation.
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That project is expected to take two and a half years and the council say it won’t be until the middle of 2024 that the work is finished and the road reopened both ways. As part of the closure, traffic heading from Bedminster to the city centre over Bedminster Bridge has also been banned from accessing Coronation Road at junction with Dean Lane, so the only way to get out of that part of Bedminster and Southville is to go down Catherine Mead Street and past the Asda car park.
Traders in East Street - particularly at the northern end of the famous shopping street - have reported that the challenge of accessing the shoppers car parks round the back of East Street has hit their trade, and the knock-on effects of residents of Southville of the Dean Lane road closure is also an issue for many. The public meeting is being held on Tuesday from 7.30pm at the Southville Centre.
It’s being organised by Action Greater Bedminster, who have invited local councillors, council officers responsible for the project and the traffic management. Neighbourhood Sergeant Jo Sibson, whose beat covers BS3, will be in attendance too.
The Action Greater Bedminster team said they hope the informal meeting will be a good way of coming up with ideas for how to tweak the arrangements if needed. “Come along for a chat on Tuesday evening to see if we can improve some of the road diversions that are currently causing issues in our area,” a spokesperson said. “There’s no need to book a ticket, just turn up from 7.30pm at the Southville Centre.”
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