B&NES’ Liberal Democrats must rethink their plans for Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods, Conservative Councillors say.

It comes ahead of a crunch Cabinet meeting on Wednesday this week in which proposals to introduce Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) will be taken forward.

Cllr Vic Pritchard, Leader of the Conservative Group on Bath and North East Somerset Council, said: “This week’s Cabinet meeting will be crucial, as we will finally learn which schemes the administration intends to take forward as Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods.

“Although we sympathise with the principle of LTNs, we are concerned that problems that have been reported with them in other parts of the country will also emerge here.

“These include higher levels of pollution and congestion caused by displaced traffic, unfair restrictions on peoples’ freedom of movement and delays to emergency service vehicles.

“Residents and businesses across the district have serious concerns about the consequences of these schemes, and the Conservative Group is calling on the Lib-Dem Cabinet to heed these concerns and rethink what could be extremely harmful policies.”

Following calls by the B&NES Conservatives for a rethink, the administration last month agreed to pause their plans to restrict access to Bath city centre.

Cabinet will meet to discuss the proposals at 6.30 pm on Wednesday.