Disappointment as Exeter traffic scheme meeting is called off

A keenly-anticipated meeting of a council committee which has overseen a controversial Exeter road closure has been cancelled.

The city’s highways and traffic orders committee (HATOC) had been due to meet on April 28. The committee is a ‘hybrid’ group made up of Devon County Council and Exeter City council members.
The HATOC made the decision to close Dryden Road to traffic during the Covid pandemic more than five years ago, saying it would create a safe and traffic-free route in and out of the city for cyclists and pedestrians.
But over the last year a major campaign has been gathering pace, saying the closure has simply moved congestion and pollution to other nearby roads, as well as making more drivers take a ‘rat-run’ through the nearby hospital grounds.
The HATOC decided last year to go out to a public consultation on what to do about Dryden Road, with options ranging from leaving it as it is to allowing full two-way car traffic back into the road.
There were a number of options offered during the public consultation, which ended last week. However, the Dryden Road issue will not now be aired on April 28.
Ian Frankum, one of the leading backers of ‘Option Three’, to allow two-way vehicle traffic with a ‘light segregated cycle facility’, said he was disappointed at the cancellation of the meeting. He said: “Whilst I understand the full consultation and the recommendations would not be ready in time, the headline figures would have, and probably are now.
“They should be shared as soon as possible. I hope councillors and officers use the time to ensure the final design, aligned to the consultation results, is completed for final approval in July.”
Writing on the Exeter Cycling Campaign’s Facebook page, campaigner Ed Pickering said: “It’s an apt but unfortunate reflection of how little progressive and positive change has been achieved in the last couple of years.”
He said that since mid-2024 the active streets trial in Heavitree had been scrapped before it had run its course and bus lane improvgements had been ‘watered down to the point of meaninglessness’.
He said focus groups on Heavitree and Whipton, along with promised action on speed and safety, had been followed by ‘tumbleweed’ while improvement works at Barnfield Road and Southernhay had been voted down.
And, he added: “We have had a wasted year spent debating the Dryden Road modal filters, with the result that active travel funds may be spent making the E9 strategic cycling route more dangerous for cyclists.”
A spokesperson for Devon County Council, which hosts the meetings at County Hall, explained: “There was insufficient business for this meeting and the chair and vice-chair agreed to cancel it.”
The next scheduled meeting of the HATOC is on July 13.