Residents and visitors of a town north of Bristol have been left waiting more than eight months for buses to return to the High Street.
Buses have not stopped on Thornbury High Street since the road was closed to vehicles at the beginning of the pandemic. But last November, South Gloucestershire Council revealed plans to reopen the shopping street to buses, after locals voiced anger about the changes.
However, eight months later and the town is still waiting for buses to revert back to their original route through the High Street, with no date for their return yet made public. Buses are using a diversion route through Rock Street, although some say this has caused safety issues. Council bosses were quizzed on when buses would return, at a cabinet meeting on July 11.
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Local resident Andrew Chubb said: “Are buses coming back to the High Street, and if so, when? Because at the moment they’re still not there. Rock Street is still a massive problem. I’ve been in Thornbury for well over 50 years, and previously to the High Street closing I know of one accident on Rock Street.
“Since the scheme has been in place, I know of six incidents on Rock Street, Midland Way and around that area. And the accidents just keep happening. The road is too busy and the position of the bus is plain dangerous, and the sooner it moves the better.”
Thornbury High Street has seen major controversial changes over the past two years, with South Gloucestershire Council initially pedestrianising the road to help local cafes and social distancing. But many in the town oppose the changes, as they’ve made it harder to drive to the High Street, causing some local shops to lose out on trade.
Now the council wants to make some changes permanent, recently securing funding for the works from the West of England combined authority. But council leader Toby Savage faced heckling from a packed public gallery at the combined authority meeting on July 1, when the funding was approved, with many complaining their concerns had not been listened to.
Through traffic will be banned and parking bays removed, but deliveries and residents will still have access. During this week’s cabinet meeting, Conservative Councillor Rachel Hunt, cabinet member for communities, appeared not to know when buses would be returning. But she promised that information would be made public, once council bosses knew themselves.
She said: “Buses will be returning. There is a process to go through and there’s processes for bus companies to go through, and also the coordination of the works and the timetabling and what happens when. We’ll send that information out as soon as we have it, about when.
“On Rock Street, we’ve acknowledged that changes were needed from that initial scheme that was put in under the pandemic, and that’s where some of the improvements are coming forward.”
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