A long-delayed scheme to manage traffic flow in Liverpool city centre is to go live next month.
Around four years after first being proposed, a ‘bus gate’ programme will finally become active on the Hanover Street corridor according to Cllr Dan Barrington, Liverpool Council cabinet member for climate change and environment. In 2018, the local authority signed off on plans for the scheme to be introduced that would ban cars and private hire taxis using the busy route, making it exclusively available for buses and Hackney cabs.
The scheme went back before cabinet in 2020 with the plans said to be active in November that year as part of an 18 month traffic order scheme. However, it was revealed in September 2021, cameras in place to catch those flouting the restrictions had yet to be turned on.
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Cllr Barrington told a select committee last night that at long last, the council was in position to switch the cameras on and enforce the measures. He said: “It’s been a very long issue, it’s taken far too long to get to where we are now, and I apologise for how long it’s taken.
“It’s been a more complicated process than I envisaged when it was first flagged up to me but we’ve finally managed to get the approval from the Vehicle Certification Agency and next month they will be going properly live.” Cllr Barrington said there was a two week period whereby the council had to issue notification to motorists “but after that fixed penalty notices will be issued.”
He added that bus companies had been patient with the scheme and “it was about time it was sorted out.” In a statement last year, Liverpool Council said the cameras installed for the bus gate scheme were “severely affected due to a number of unforeseen technical issues.”
The cameras going live was welcomed by Cllr Steve Munby who had been critical of the council’s perceived lack of action on the bus gate. He said: “It’s critical that with the bus changes that are happening, Arriva and Stagecoach have been pretty patient about that frankly, and it was part of the deal to get services restored that we’d have that in place.”
When the scheme was announced in 2020, it was hoped the adoption of a bus gate would reduce major issues of congestion around Hanover Street and make the area safer for passengers. The bus gate bans all traffic except buses and cabs, heading westbound into Ranelagh Street and Hanover Street from Lime Street between 7am to midnight, every day of the week.
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