As thousands of commuters have been left fuming in traffic with the closure of of Back Caton Road as part of the work on the Kingsway development, local residents haven’t had it easy, either. To solve the traffic problem, traffic has been routed through Bulk Road, pushing thousands of extra vehicles past people’s homes at all hours of day and night.
County Council highway engineers have also completely blocked the footpath at the Kingsway end of Skerton Bridge by placing a huge road sign on the footpath warning motorists of the diversion.
“The noise, pollution and increased road traffic danger on Bulk Road as a result of these traffic changes is unacceptable,” says Councillor John Whitelegg (Green, Bulk Ward), of the disruption to people’s lives and the road traffic danger. “It’s making the lives of local residents a misery and nothing has been done to help them cope with the mess.
“The dumping of a large road sign on the Skerton Bridge footpath adds insult to injury and is forcing Skerton residents to walk in the road to get round it and, even worse, forcing those with pushchairs and children onto the road if they need to get past the obstruction. It would be completely impossible for someone in a wheelchair to get across Skerton Bridge at the moment.
“The road sign should be removed immediately.”
John has written to the County Council cabinet member responsible for highways and transport (Councillor Hanson) and asked her to instruct County Council staff to get rid of the footpath obstruction immediately and he has written to the Kingsway developers to ask them to compensate every household on Bulk Road and Gladstone Terrace with an ex gratia payment of £100 as a small offer of gratitude for putting up with such a mess.