FAQs

We are able to make changes to the road network without consulting if the proposals are in response to a public safety issue. In this case the new pedestrian crossings were installed in order to address the poor pedestrian safety record at this junction. Since 2018, there have been 11 collisions at the junction, which includes a pedestrian fatality in 2019. Therefore, we installed these without being required to consult about them.  A programme of engagement was carried out with the local community to ensure everyone was aware of our plans.

We have implemented the banned turns on an experimental basis to monitor, over a longer period of time, how the junction is functioning and how traffic is able to flow through the junction with the pedestrian crossings in place. At the end of the experiment period, we will use a variety of traffic monitoring data and feedback from this consultation to decide if the traffic movements need to be changed, if we should keep the changes permanently or remove them.

Liaison between the teams involved in both the Brownhill/Torridon scheme and the Catford scheme has taken place and we are aware of potential conflicts between the two schemes were they both to proceed on a permanent basis.  This scheme has been introduced on an experimental, rather than permanent basis and the status of the Catford scheme will be taken into account at the end of the experimental period (autumn 2025).  

The Catford scheme is still subject to various approval and funding processes.  Should it go ahead, this would ultimately mean that by the end of the scheme’s construction, the way traffic moves around the town centre area would be different, and the wider impacts on the local road network would be assessed, including at Brownhill/Torridon. This would allow steps to be taken to ensure that impacts on nearby residential areas is kept to a minimum.

The feedback from this consultation and our monitoring from the experimental scheme will be fed back to the Catford team for their consideration also.

It is our intention for the impact on local roads to be minimal as usually displaced traffic will redirect to a number of different alternative routes. We will be monitoring this and will also use feedback from this consultation to assess these impacts.

We use a number of collision and traffic data to assess the needs for the junction.  The network performance is regularly monitored and during the experimental traffic order addition monitoring tools are incorporated such as traffic flow and bus journey data.  We will publish the results of this monitoring at various points during the experimental period.