Objections to a series of new parking and highways restrictions in Armley as part of £16 million scheme to improve roads between Leeds and Bradford have been over-ruled.
Leeds City Council is proposing a number of traffic orders as part of the Stanningley Road bus priority scheme, which aims to improve public transport access into Leeds city centre on the A647.
Work is set to include replacing current high occupancy vehicle lanes on Stanningley Road with extended bus lanes and further bus priority measures at traffic signals.
It is also set to include improvements to the Armley Road/Ledgard Way junction and Pickering Street, reducing ‘delays to general traffic and improving safety for all users’, as well as ‘segregated lanes to complement the Leeds Bradford cycle superhighway’.
A total of 14 objections were received to the proposed orders, representing a total of 40 households, three businesses located on Pickering Street, and the landlord of Carlton Mills Trading Estate in Pickering Street.
Details of the traffic orders can be found here, but local objections included the potential impact of traffic speeds and parking on the Aviaries estate, the impact on roads around Wilkinson’s car park and on Eyres Avenue.
The objections relate to the proposals for Pickering Street, Armley Park Road, Stanningley Road, the Pickering Street / Canal Road junction and the Armley Road / Ledgard Way junction.
Residents in Arksey Terrace and Hereford Street also expressed concerns regarding the impact of the proposals on rat running and parking on these streets. Wider concerns were also expressed about the consultation.
Armley’s councillors generally back the proposals but have said that they do not support the conversion of the Stanningley Road High Occupancy Vehicle lane to a bus lane due to the perceived impacts on residents and concerns over congestion.
But a council report has authorised that the objections to the traffic orders be over-ruled. Reasons include the council agreeing to undertake traffic speed and volume surveys within the Aviaries estate following implementation of the proposals.
The report also says some of the changes are relatively minor and are not expected to cause major problems. The report adds:
“Care has been taken in the design of the Traffic Regulation Orders required to implement this project so as to minimise any negative impacts.
“For example, where parking restrictions are to be introduced, parking surveys have been undertaken, the results of which have been used to inform a design which ensures that sufficient alternative parking is available to accommodate displaced demand.
“Similarly, the impacts of point closures and banned turns have been analysed in terms of the likely numbers of vehicles affected.”
The council’s report into this issue can be read in full here.