Radstock’s Labour Party has organised a short online survey to seek residents’ views on Fortescue Road.
“B&NES’ recent announcement that they are considering reversing the one-way direction of Fortescue Road is completely mad,” said Radstock Labour Councillor, Chris Dando.
“This must be one of the most-studied roads in the country. Having only changed the direction of travel a few months ago, it’s a complete waste of time and money to start tinkering again.”
Local Labour Party members meeting last week decided that an open public consultation on the issue would be useful.
“There’s no sign of B&NES’ ruling Conservatives actively seeking the views of our community as a whole,” explained Anne Marie Jovcic-Sas, Chair of Radstock Labour. “Our
online survey will be open until the end of October and we will present the results to future meetings of the Town Council and B&NES.”
Alongside Labour’s Chris Dando, B&NES’ other ward Councillor for Radstock, Deidre Horstmann (Conservative), has welcomed the possibility of Fortescue Road being reversed, with
Radstock’s Town Traders also keen for a rethink. They say putting it back to its original direction would encourage visitors to stop off and shop.
Speaking to The Journal this week, Cllr Anthony Clarke (Conservative), Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “The idea of reversing the direction of traffic on Fortescue Road is being looked at in response to requests from local traders and residents, who believe that such a change would make the one-way system flow in a more natural direction and could help
support local businesses.
“Clearly, we need our traffic engineers to look at the impact such a change would have before making any changes, but we feel it is worth at least looking into this idea. We welcome all
contributions to this discussion and look forward to seeing the results of this survey.”