Bridport Town Centre Improvement
Our town centre streets are clogged with traffic again as the Covid effect diminishes. Much of it is through traffic which should be using the bypass. Quite apart from noise and pollution, this domination pushes pedestrians, cyclists and all who want to enjoy our town centre to the margins. It doesn’t need to be like this. The Green Party will fight for big changes in which only priority vehicles such as buses, emergency vehicles, waste collection and street cleaning vehicles and taxis would be able to pass through the Town Hall junction.
Much of this vision is illustrated in the Access and Movement (A & M) study which can be viewed on the Town Council website. (Open the A & M study, click on Options Development and scroll to pages 24 to 29 to see the “Transformational Option). All this could be achieved while providing improved delivery or collection services for shops and businesses which would replace the anarchic mess when lorries block one carriageway while delivering. Some residents would need to make slightly more circuitous journeys by car but this would be a small price to pay for all the benefits flowing to those living in East, West and South streets and all their other users. Locals and tourists, market traders, hospitality businesses and everyone who wants to eat, drink, shop and so on in civilised surroundings would benefit.
The only downside – we might be overwhelmed by tourists flocking to enjoy the town!
