Campaigners calling for Exeter road to be re-opened to traffic six years after it closed have urged councillors to ‘get on with it’.
Members of the city’s highways and traffic orders committee (HATOC) will meet next week to decide the next steps on the controversial closure of Dryden Road.
It was closed during the Covid lockdown to offer cyclists and pedestrians a traffic-free route in and out of town.
Since then there has been a campaign to re-open it, citing research which shows that pollution and congestion have increased in the streets surrounding Dryden Road, while the nearby hospital grounds have become a rat-run.
On the other side of the debate, supporters of the closure, which was made permanent in 2022, say it has created a safe, clean space which meets Exeter’s policies on cleaner streets and carbon reduction.
The HATOC, which comprises city and county councillors, commissioned a public consultation that drew nearly 3,000 responses, with 73 per cent voting to reopen the road to traffic.
In July the committee voted to scrap the vehicle ban and create a street which caters for cars and lorries but also keeps pedestrians, cyclists and wheelers safe.
It meets again next week (October 12) to consider a revised design which includes a 20mph speed limit along the full length of the road, two ‘advisory’ cycle lanes, a zebra crossing and a road hump between Well Oak Park and Barrack Road.
There will be an improved, and wider, uphill advisory cycle lane from the junction with Kipling Drive to the top of the hill near Well Oak while the Kipling Drive junction will be on a raised table to encourage lower speeds.
A road hump before the mini-roundabout at Dryden Road/Bovemoors Lane is designed to encourage lower speeds.
There will be no loss of existing on-street parking.
The next stages, if councillors agree next week, will be for the plans to be fully advertised and any objections to be considered. A final decision could then be made in January, with construction work possible in April.
Campaigner Ian Frankum, who has led the move to have traffic brought back into Dryden Road, said: “The case for further delay has diminished considerably. The time for discussion and further uncertainty is now over. We need to see the recommendations progressed at pace.”
He said the vast majority of people responding to consultations would support the latest proposals, and because the cost would be less than half a million pounds the decision could be made at a local level rather than being referred up to the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority.
“We believe that conditions now exist for a cross party consensus,” said Mr Frankum. “The next step is clear – approve the scheme, commence the traffic orders process and keep Dryden Road moving towards reopening.”
However, the Exeter Cycling Campaign says it wants to keep Dryden Road traffic-free in the interests of safety, and has raised more than £10,000 to fund legal action, which is likely to take the form of a formal objection to the traffic orders.
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