A senior Leeds councillor has urged people to use common sense when using two new roundabouts in Swinnow.
The new road layout, at the busy junction of Swinnow Road and Stanningley Bypass, near Morrisons, includes a double roundabout aimed at improving traffic flow.
But, as reported by West Leeds Life last week, the £95,000 scheme has proven contentious, with some motorists criticising the new layout as ‘confusing’ and ‘narrow’. Our poll showed 80% of people claiming the changes hasn’t improved the junction*.
Pudsey Labour councillor Richard Lewis (Leeds City Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, Transport and Planning) has defended the changes.
Ho told West Leeds Life the improvements were down to a fatality on the slip road ‘some time ago’ and a coroner’s recommendation that the council change the traffic arrangements. He said:
“[The] roundabout markings are there to show who has priority, not to indicate that your wheels can’t trespass on a road marking. People just have to use a bit of common sense – as any decent driver should be doing whenever they’re on the road.
“One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s a lot easier to make a right turn out of the slip road onto the bridge because vehicles coming down from Bramley are having to slow down.
“On a serious note, we did have a fatality on the slip road some time ago and a coroner’s recommendation that we look at changing the traffic arrangements, but there aren’t many options that are in any way workable in this location and you can’t do all the things you’d like to do for good reasons.”
Cllr Lewis said councillors had hoped for another crossing closer to Morrisons, but that this had proven difficult. He added:
“I think we’d all have liked another zebra on the Morrisons side, but to do this safely it would have had to be several car lengths down the slip road in order to give drivers a chance to see and stop for pedestrians – but then you know that a lot of pedestrians would have opted to cross at the top because it’s more convenient.”
*More than 40 people have so far voted.
What do you think about the roundabout and Cllr Lewis’s response? Have your say in the comments section below.
